Night Rain
by Quixote
Summary: Though having graduated and long gone, she is a well known legend passed down on the school grounds of the Ninja Academy. Some protest that she was nothing more then a made up legend. Others claim they saw the spectacle with their own eyes. For she is
1. I: Shininess

(A/N): Sorry if someone already did this and other ideas and is pissed, I never copy without telling and disclaiming, there can only be so many unique plotlines…Anywho, don't be like dude this isn't Kakashi, his character develops into the scarecrow we all (most of us-I know there are some Kakashi dislikers/haters O.o oh mi god-shocker) love. But who doesn't like a wittle, chibi Kakashi? n-n

By the way people..keep your thoughts clean..they're little toddlers for goodness sake…innocence, pure innocence… :-P

Overall general, romance (duh), my pitiful attempt at humor, some action/adventure.

This is a companion to 'Little Imp', though you can very well read this separately.

_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/sorry/my/usual/dividers/keep/going/away/in/editing...weird/aaaaaaaaa_

Cover Summary: Though having graduated and long gone, she is a well-known legend passed down on the school grounds of the Ninja Academy. Some protest that she was nothing more then a made up legend. Others claim they saw the spectacle with their own eyes. For she is the only one known to have KO'ed the Hatake Kakashi square in the jaw.

For those who would like to know more of the plot…

Full Summary: Ishiguro Amaya is known as the only daughter of the esteemed Ishiguro household, equal to the ranks of royalty. She was raised as the perfect housewife and is seen so; mild-mannered, graceful, polite, self-less, soothing, peaceful…Hatake Kakashi, mysterious, esteemed genius, masked-shinobi, only has three words to say to that. Bull. Bull. Bull. To him, she is the owner of the 'Fatal Fist' and was once some weird, quirky, rash, jibing, mischievous, trouble-loving-and-making-classmate who had graduated then dropped out for some reason. Now, as an ANBU member assigned to protect the Ishiguro daughter from any harm due to recent, suspicious family deaths, they reunite after nine years. How much has changed to and between the two?

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Night Rain

I: Shininess

…_Do You Remember When We First Met…_

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"Who. Are you?"

"Are you playing dress up? Can I play? Can I play?"

"…G..Get off of me!"

The frazzled young boy tried to shake off the energetic toddler who seemed keen on examining the wonderfully shiny metal objects the strange boy kept in a pouch on the side of his leg.

"Those aren't toys!"

"Shiny!"

"..Aaagh!—uumph!" He fell onto his back with the bouncy tot landing knees first, digging into his stomach. The little girl's attention switched immediately to the curious boy who looked around her own age. A new possible playmate? She excitingly grinned and giggled while clapping her hands at that thought.

Meanwhile, the irritated boy snapped his eyes out of their 'X'-marked daze and winced every time the girl bounced up and down on his stomach. She stopped and sat cross-legged, smiling happily down at the narrowed eye boy, her deep, purple eyes sparkling.

"Hi! Hi! Hihihihihi! I'm Amaya! What's your name? What's your name? Are you here to play with me? Are you? Are you? Are you?" The hyper tot jubilantly started to jump up and down again, shouting happily. With every jump, Kakashi wheezed air out in pain in wondering what he'd done to deserve such cruelty and also swore to throttle whoever gave this tot sugar.

True to her short attention span, she stopped a moment and puzzlingly cocked her head to the side, staring at the intriguing mask. While his eyes still swirled around dizzyingly from the trouncing, Amaya's hand slowly reached out to pull down the mask to discover just exactly what he hid behind it. As the first of her fingers brushed against the fabric, a hand darted out and clasped her wrist with an audible clap, holding it tightly in place. She blinked in surprise, her mouth in the perfect shape of an 'o'.

His eyes narrowed in a serious manner. "Let me say this in words you might understand better. No. Touchy." With a 'plop!' she landed on her behind on the grassy ground as the now standing boy brushed himself off, flinching slightly when coming to his stomach.

"Jeez, that hurt…" He gingerly rubbed the inflicted area. At this, the sitting girl perked up and smiled once more.

"Do you have an owchie? When ever I get owchies, nurse kissie it away and it gets aaall better! Do you need a kissie? I think you need a kissie!"

At the first mention of 'owchie', the boy had lowered his eyes into a bothered gaze and lightly scoffed at even having been addressed to with such terms. At the mention of 'kissie', he looked at her alarmingly. "N-no! I don't need a ki—" Too late. The tot had already happily leaped forward, eyes curving up. Kakashi frantically squirmed and tried to lean back and away, unfortunately, such an action caused her kissie to land just a tad lower then the intended abdomen.

Afterwards, he quickly reacted and took a full step back, lightly blushing. He was knowledgeable and mature enough for his young age to know that _that _was inappropriate for some reason. Of course, with his action the girl fell flat and hard on her face into the grass. She struggled up with a budding bruise on her forehead and had on a most pitiful, large eyed expression filled with such sadness and rising tears in which the boy couldn't help but slump his shoulders and feel shameful guilt.

He scuffled the ground with one foot and rubbed the back of his head while looking another way. "…Um…ano…I…uh…h..h..hey, don't cry!" It was the scent of salt that got his attention as he was trapped in an awkward situation. She sat and whimpered quietly while slow tears ran down her face, looking down at the ground. He was thankful she was not a loud wailer, but somehow, the quietness of her weeping made him feel more at loss and at fault.

"Um……there..there…?" The girl didn't seem to hear and she continued to look more forlorn. With all his knowledge, Kakashi truly did not know what to do. He couldn't remember ever crying himself, and the few times he nearly did in his very early years, he was reprimanded with a talk of how crying would solve nothing.

"….Uh..ah..jeez…" Seeming to settle on a thought, he clenched his fists at his sides and stiffened determinedly, reluctantly walking forwards, comically resembling a wind up toy soldier. Standing just in front of her, he quickly swiveled his head all around with a fierce scowl and as quick as lightening, bent down and gave her a cloth covered peck on the forehead. Nevertheless, she giggled at the slight, tickling sensation of his floppy hair lightly brushing against the sides of her face. And as just as quick, her mood immediately uplifted into a merry state.

"Arigato ah—" Amaya stopped in the middle of her cheerful thanking, unsure of what to call the boy.

"Kakashi." He filled in, standing off to the side, crossing his arms in a formal manner.

"Arigato Kakashi-chan!" She happily finished.

"San."

"…Ne?"

"You will address me as Kakashi-san." He stated with an air of command. The girl continued to look puzzled.

"..Why?"

He swung a foot around to stand before her once more, keeping the crossed arms. "It is only proper you respectfully address such superiors and elders. Kakashi-sama would have been a bit exaggerated." Although his big, fancy words clearly confused the girl, Amaya appeared to have understood the gist of his statements from key words, and thus solemnly nodded. Kakashi looked satisfied that the tot seemed to comprehend.

Afterwards, she responded knowingly. "…I get it. Gomen Kakashi-kun!" He started nodding in agreement, when stopping to grasp her words. A simple toddler brain lapse and mistake.

"Kakashi-san." He corrected.

"Noooooo. Kakashi-kun." She drawled out in a playful tease. He paused a bit to make sure he had not misheard anything. Then, while watchfully keeping his eye on the smiling girl, he carefully spoke.

"San."

"Kun!"

"San."

"Kun!"

"Why you…"

"Hehe." Amaya delightfully giggled, apparently finding it an amusing game. Sensing this, Kakashi annoyingly mumbled.

"Its not a game. Stop playing around."

The girl crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "You're not older then me. Or bigger. Mm..well…you do have a bigger head then me. Kakashi-_kun_." He rapidly blinked for a few seconds and peered down at the girl, processing her words. She noticed his bewildered state and simply gave a toothy grin. He stood back, looking at the child in new light: the innocent toddler had suddenly turned devious.

Kakashi asked skeptically, "Oi, just how old are you anyway?" The girl smiled away and gave an elated laugh.

'…_Does she even do anything but giggle and grin?'_ The boy thought exasperatedly. _'..That and crying…'_

She replied in an overly bubbly voice, "Thwee!", while holding up all 10 fingers, as if to completely disclaim any such suspected deviousness. Perhaps…he really did have a physically larger head? Yes, physically larger to hold his larger, and smarter brain he figured. He opened his eyes from this meditation when realizing it was a bit too quiet.

Um…where was the kid?

The blank space stressed out alarmingly, but he soon berated himself for panicking in the first place. He scoffed; she wasn't his charge, like he even cared anyway. She was the one to suddenly barge in during his solo training, bruise his stomach, and hair-yankingly annoy him. Nevertheless, he frowned a bit at the thought of the girl alone and most likely lost in the forest.

Kakashi sighed and took a step when stopping midway, freezing his body in that position. His eyes were closed, an eyebrow dangerously twitching as angry marks popped up on the side of head. His right hand was already inside the empty, leg pouch, which was devoid of any 'shiny things'.

To be able to steal them right under his nose and get away without him noticing…

'_..THAT SNEAKY LITTLE—' _

Before he could finish that thought, he forcibly calmed down, realizing there was yet again nothing to truly to become distressed over. Kakashi gave a small, assertive smile as he easily picked up the girl's scent right from where she had sat.

_ooo_

He was loudly growling in frustration. He had already covered a good distance deep into the forest. Just when did she escape out from under him and how could she have gone this far? But then, luck. Kakashi caught on to the remnants of her irregular scent trail and promptly seized it before losing it once more.

Shortly, her scent began to fade again, dithering in the air among the sharp smells of the foliage. Determined not to lose the trail, he bent down onto fours and sniffed lower to the ground where the trail was not so obscured by the woods. He unintentionally continued to trek that way, becoming impatiently aware of how her scent grew stronger.

'_..Closer..closer..nearly—'_

"BOOOOOOOOOOO!" So absorbed he was in following the trail, did the sudden outburst catch him entirely unawares.

The Hatake Kakashi does not go 'eeyah'. That word of expression is unfortunately not included in his program. You will not hear this word of expression no matter how many times the string in his back is pulled.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

However there are limited editions available with such a word of expression.

_ooo_

She had swung down from a low tree branch to hang upside down, and had rallied the most frightening face she could, going as far to roll up her eyes to show their whites and waggle her tongue out. For the current moment, Amaya was crouched down, poking the twitching boy on the ground with a stick every now and then.

Poke. "..Neh, are you dead?" Poke. Kakashi merely twitched in response, still in shock.

"..Neeeh! Dead people can't play! Be undead! Undead!" She furiously started to poke the side of the boy as if to drive out any such deadness. The onslaught of poking actually did snap the boy out of his shock and he heatedly jumped to his feet while jerking the stick out of her hands, chucking it to the ground.

"You!" He finally managed to spit out, quaking with anger. Yet the girl only remained smiling, thrilled that her stick of poking power was able to undead the boy back to life.

"You no good, rotten little thief!" He crossly barked. Amaya's cheerful smile never faltered, but rather, seemed to grow larger at this accusation.

"Yay! You're undead! Oh! The shinies? I made them all preeetty! Here!"

'…_o-o-h…g-o-d…'_ He did not like the sound of 'preeetty' at all.

He could have weeped. He really could have. How she didn't accidentally cut herself in the process was a miracle, but that wonder was not paid full attention to at the moment.

Kakashi's eyes actually hurt from the shininess of his…weapons. Glitter, sparkly glitter on just about every square inch of metal. Pink glitter. And yellow ribbons. Tied around his kunai handles instead of the usual bandages. Long ribbons were also tied onto the finger holes of the knives, as well as that of the shurikens. Hearts and teddy bears were on the ribbons. Of course, the ribbons were covered in glitter as well.

He held them out unbelievingly in his shaking hands, staring at them with wide eyes and let them slip out of his hands, continuing to stare at empty palms with the same bulging eyes.

"Hehe, aren't they preeetty?" Amaya just continued to grin, as if she had done the boy a favor. Shaking all the while, Kakashi slowly raised his head to the sky as if to ask 'whhyyy? Whyy meee?'

"..Neh, Kakashi-kun, I've been thinking…" The boy was still in his own world, silently questioning the sky. "Are you reeeeally a scarecrow?" He paused in his self-questioning, then dropped his head back down in a hinge movement, revealing part of his face scrunched up in an incredulous look.

The tot had already moved to stand closer, her height even with the boy, and peered with a scrupulous, considering look; eyes narrowed in study with a hand at her chin. He blinked for a while to escape his previous stupor while digesting her question. Before Kakashi started to frown and retort, the girl rambled on nonstop.

"I mean," she scratched her head, "you don't look like one…where are your scarecrowy clothes? Neh, neh, do the crows hurt? Doesn't your back hurt from the big stick?" She whizzed around him, poking and tugging. "Are you really filled with hay and straw!" At this, she pulled his shirt and looked in, but was quickly shoved away by an angrily blushing boy. Amaya spoke first, mouth pouted up with a disappointed look. "Chi!", she crossed her arms and turned her nose up, " You're not scarecrowy at all! Phony!"

"Baka! Its only a na—" ((Stupid, idiot..etc)

"—I get it!" She excitedly jumped up and down like a wild cricket in front of him. "You're no scarecrow at all! You're a doggie! A talking doggie! That's why you were sniffing the ground like one! …But…where's you doggy tail…?" He was at a loss of how the girl could move so fast. She was suddenly behind him, brows furrowed in seeing no tail.

"And doggie ears?" Amaya patted and searched the top of his head, missing his actual ears hidden by his hair. The tot zoomed back to stand in front him, tilting her head to the side.

"Is that why you have a mask?", she questioned, then opened her mouth wide with her hands, a finger from each hand creating a fang and continued in a distorted voice, " To hide you doggie face and doggie fangs? Rawr!"

It was then that a sudden epiphany seemed to have had struck the child as she gave a horrified gasp while clasping her hands to the mouth. She then chattered hurriedly in a worried voice.

"Huuuuuuuh! Did all of Kakashi-kun's doggie fur fall out when the crows thought you were a scarecrow and pecked at you? Did the mean crows peck your ears and tail off too? Did they?"

She waited, wide eyed, for a response. Kakashi stood stock still. His pupils reduced to tiny dots held between two, horizontal lines. His entire being twitched amid intervals.

'…_.W…H…A…T.'_

Time passed like that.

Finally, the boy was able to speak.

"N-O." He enunciated the short word crisply. "I-am-a-human-boy." Amaya slumped down, looking a bit disappointed but soon brightened. "Oh well, can I still play ninja with you?"

He desperately massaged the sides of his forehead, rubbing in circles. "No. I'm not _playing_ ninja, I am one…in becoming…" The last part was barely mumbled quietly out of the corner of his mouth.

"..Eeeh? Nuh-uh! Where's your hitae-ate then?" She cleverly pointed out. ((forehead protector))

"……Its…none of your business!" He huffed. "And just where in the world did you get all this glitter in a forest?" The other tot smiled widely, her eyes curving up.

"Hehe, cuz this is my secret hiding place! Ooo, but it's a secret so no telling!" She whispered enthusiastically.

'…_Secret..hiding place?'_ Now that he observed his surroundings closer, Kakashi noticed how the small area was especially enclosed and hidden by thick brambles and bushes, the only opening was the same one he had unknowingly crawled through. A few trees in the area were hollowed out at their bases like caves, containing various objects including toys, stuffed animals and dolls, drawing paper with doodles on them, crayons, blankets, and lots of glitter.

"Amaya-sama!"

"Hime!"

"Amaya-sama!"

Distant voices yelled out in the woods, and the girl's energetic persona waned as she turned her head to the direction of the voices. She turned back to the boy, speaking in a doleful voice.

"..Neh, I have to go now.." The tot turned and scuffled off, turning behind a tree and disappearing. Kakashi remained standing, pondering in confusion.

'_..Sama? Hime?..'_

And then he wondered why she would need a secret hiding place in the beginning.

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

"…Kakashi…do you need..to tell me something…?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow at his young son. His question was met with bitter grumbles and mutterings.

"…Kakashi…?"

"No." Was the firm reply.

The other slightly slanted his head and continued to look dubious. "…Are you sure?" He questioned, fingering what was left of the teddy bear/heart ribbon that was tied on to the shuriken embedded in the tree trunk beside him.

"Yes." Came through gritted teeth. Sakumo chuckled quietly and walked over.

"All right then.." He stated, patting the child on the head. He paused in the house doorway, turning his head. "…You know, yellow doesn't really go well with pink, I believe we have some green ribbons if you want." His eyes curved up.

The boy wrathfully shook his fist in front of him with his head drawn down.

That glitter had stuck on tight. Through seventy five washes.

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_


	2. II: Annoyance

(A/N):…Hmmmm….the beginning is a bit boring for the easily distracted…ah, suck it up. :-P

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Night Rain

II: Annoyance

_…A second time around…_

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"…Oh, for kami's sake Amaya-sama..please do not run off like that!…" The middle-aged woman sighed, worry wrinkles appearing and continued. Same old. Same old. The girl swayed drowsily in the chair, it wouldn't be the first time she fell off and thumped onto the floor.

"…Hai…" She mechanically inputted, rubbing an eye, stifling a yawn.

"…Especially since Keiji-sama has been looking for Amaya-sama."

'_..!..'_ Eh? Well, this was new.

"Onii-chan? Where? Where?" She perked up immediately, a fervent light shining in her eyes.

"Keiji-sama is—" The nurse stopped, realizing she was speaking to an empty chair, slightly shaking from previous movement.

Typical.

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Onii-chan had been gone longer this time. But he was finally back! Back! The tot could hardly keep from bursting in joy and leaping all around.

"Hai, otou-sama. I try my best."

Hearing the familiar voice, the girl's bare feet lightly screeched on the wood floor, coming to a stop to peer around the corner. For a moment, she simply stared in surprise and wonder at the two figures sitting elegantly on the floor cushions. How uncomfortable those many layers of clothing must be!

In those very few, rare occasions, she had encountered the elderly but prestigious man whom she called otou-sama. The words felt strange and unfamiliar in her mouth. Amaya stared longer at the woman, more specifically her dark eyes holding the same purple hue. Sometimes, she met with the woman, but her presence was not as frigidly intimidating.

As such, the screech drew attention to the girl's spot and she instantly walked out into view, as it would be forbiddingly rude not to do so. Keeping her head down, she properly walked in front and stopped a respectful distance, bowing down completely.

Raising her head only slightly to speak, eyes to the floor, the child recalled proper etiquette. "Good day, honorable father, honorable mother." The words were formal and blank. The man's eyes swept briefly over the child then back to the other. The woman's gaze lingered longer and she gave a small smile then spoke quietly to the child while her spouse continued his talk with their eldest.

"You can stop bowing now dear." Her smooth voice, like the wind gliding through the clouds.

Amaya cautiously straightened her back, so she was kneeling in the same manner as her older brother.

"…Good, good, that's excellent to hear. You'll make a proud heir yet." For the first time in her life, the girl saw the man give the closest thing to a smile, a short upturn of his mouth and curt, approving nod of the head.

'…_Creee-peee…'_

"Thank you otou-sama." With another bow, the girl soon copying after, the young man stood afterwards and took Amaya's hand in his, walking out.

As soon as the two reached the back gardens, Amaya launched herself onto him.

"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! You're back! Did you miss me? Did ya? I missed you a lot!" Giving a hearty laugh, he spun around in a circle with the giggling tot attached to his front.

"Yes, I missed you most of all. Just what mischief and trouble have you been up to while I was gone?" His purple eyes akin to hers crinkled in a questioning grin. At this, Amaya gave a sly look and giggled naughtily, she shifted up higher and whispered wickedly into her brother's ear, shielding the confessions with cupped hands.

"Neh, I put froggies into the cranky cook lady's apron pockets! But the froggies would get hungry! So I freed a lot of crickets! But the crickets would get hungry too! So I put out lots of candy! …Crickets like candy..right? Except the ants kept eating them!" One by one she came clean of her unruly deeds, though seeming to take overjoyed pride in them instead of red-faced shame.

"Hahaha, you're going to get caught one day, and then you'll _really_ get it." He teasingly poked her nose in with a finger. She hopped down and then exclaimed. "Oh! I also met a new play buddy today!" She remembered ecstatically while raising her arms up, "Though…he's a weeeird play buddy.." She scrunched her face up in recollection.

Keiji raised his eyebrows astonishingly and raked a hand through his sandy hair. "You mean you actually like one of them?" By them, he had referred to the young children from other potent households and clans who were close associates to the Ishiguro household; play dates were scheduled for the young ones, but less and less were arranged to the Ishiguro household as the other often ended up in tears.

The tot scowled deeply and angrily stuck out her tongue out. "Yeeck! No way!" They never wanted to do anything fun outside, and they were horrible losers in indoor games. Onii-chan had called them spoiled brats. Amaya had then asked if they tasted bad and her last, appointed playmate had ran away crying with a bite mark in his arm. She later announced that they indeed tasted spoiled.

She quickly brightened. "No, he was in the forest! He kissie my owchie!" Here, she pointed to the small bruise on her forehead.

"Mm?" He bent down and peered closer, noticing the slight discoloring. She happily rambled on.

"And I made all his shiny things all pretty! But I really think he is a doggie, even if he says he isn't! Hmm..those mean crows…Maybe his pretty fur will grow back?"

"—Hold on. The forest? Amaya, its no longer safe to go to such places alone. Promise me you won't go there anymore."

"But!"

"Sss! Nope. Can't wriggle out of this one. I'm serious this time. Don't worry, I'll get all your toys from your hiding place." He ended with a reassuring smile.

"_Secret_ hiding place!" She heatedly corrected, whishing her head around to see if anyone was eavesdropping.

"Right, right. _Secret_ hiding place." He repeated with a hushed voice, rolling his eyes humorously.

"Onii-chan! Only one more year right!" She brightly asked.

"…Ah..that's right..yes, then you can enter the academy. Hmm…you're still set on that aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah! It'll be fun!"

"…mm…yeah..fun.." He gave a half smile.

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

_One Year Later_

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The brushings and hushed tones of the taboo word, 'war', were becoming louder. His father had stated the truth of it so. But nothing could deter the young one from the excitement of his first day at the academy. Of course, he had to keep such emotions in check. Such was the utmost rule of the shinobi.

"NAAANI?" ((what))

"Hmm?" The girl turned, her mauve eyes blinking in puzzlement. She saw a masked boy standing frigid behind her, his eyes wide as if he had seen an oni.

He would have even recognized the back of her head, the familiar scruff of midnight hair. Her face and eyes only confirmed it, just slightly older; the baby fat had toned down. They had only met once before, almost a year ago in the Eastland forests. Kakashi had gone back once to a certain spot, only to find all her toys and such to have vanished and hadn't thought of her since. Until.

"You!" He griped out. "You!" He pointed a shaking finger at her. The memory of that afternoon all rushed back.

She completely turned around and placed her hands at her hips annoyingly, scrunching up her mouth. "OI!" Then completely relaxed, pointing to herself. "…Do I know you…?"

CRASH!

"…Mm..neh, neh…are you okay?"

Twitch, twitch.

She decided the ruler would have to make do since her stick of poking power was safely horded away in her room.

He had forgotten how hard she could poke.

Poke. Poke. Poke-poke-poke-poke. Snap!

"Yay! You're okay! ….Ano…that wasn't mine…" The ruler was broken in two, jagged splinters stuck out.

"Ah-em." Both looked up at the adult shinobi standing before them, he raised an eyebrow at the ruler in the boy's hand.

_ooo_

Just how was he going to explain to his father that he needed to go buy a wooden ruler? Seats had quickly filled up while the two were in their most warm reunion, only two in the back remained.

Greeeaaat. Kakashi mentally cursed at having to sit next to the girl as well as having to suffer sitting in one of the worst spots of the classroom, well, worst for someone who actually wanted to learn. The back was decently filled with the typical lazy, sleepers, skippers, etc. Similar thoughts crossed Amaya's mind, she wanted to be in the front row! That stupid boy…

Roll was called. The class of students turned out much larger then Kakashi had thought there would be. Figures, the academy was bending the restrictions to allow more and younger children in. Only a few knew of the real reason, a father with high connections was quite helpful: Konoha was in desperate need of more ninja reserves…'just in case' as he heard it. As Kakashi looked around though, he was among the youngest academy students.

"…Ishiguro Amaya."

"HEEERE!"

Ow.

The sudden exclamation jolted Kakashi out of his muses. He'd forgotten how loud she could be as well. The girl was beamingly raising a hand in accordance with her shout. Those napping nearby had snorted out of their snooze, grumpily narrowing their eyes at the youth.

'…_Ishiguro…!'_ Ah. The prominent Ishiguro household. But strange, the Households were different to that of the Clans of Konoha. It was extremely rare to find a non-shinobi in a Clan; the complete opposite could be said in a Household. They were more connected to the daimyo and the imperial units of the country. A balance. A way of passage between the feudal lords and the Kages. But as all clans, dwelling in their own secrets of knowledge and battle. Peculiar, to send their own child...

_ooo_

If he didn't think she was annoying before, then she was annoying. Wait..that didn't make sense…well, she's annoying anyway. Kakashi was becoming worried for his state of mind the longer he sat next to her.

"I only remember a kawaii, silvery doggie…"

"It wasn't a dog-I'm not a dog—"

"—Phish…I think I can tell the difference between a dog and a boy—"

"—I am a dog!—No!—I am that dog!—Damn it!—"

"—Oooooooo…you said a baaaad wooord!"

"Grrrrrrr…."

"Hehe, well, you sure do growl like one. Maybe you're related to that dog…"

"…You're _maddening_…"

"KAKASHI!" The two stopped their whispered conversation and narrowed eye staring/glaring contest as the sensei stood impatiently in the front of the classroom, tapping a foot; their classmates snickered quietly.

"…Well…?" The sensei asked, the mask luckily concealed the blank look on the boy's face.

"…Well, Kakashi…do you have the answer?"

Rule 3: A shinobi must remain calm and composed at all times.

'…_Damn it, damn it…I didn't hear the question to begin with..! Ah…crap…'_

"…Can you restate the question, I couldn't quite hear it all from back here." The sensei frowned dubiously but cleared his voice anyway.

"The question was: what is the proper stance one should take when fighting close-range and outnumbered?"

Ha. Easy. He couldn't but give a small smirk. He learned practically everything from his father and more so on his own. This academy had all but just reviewed what he already knew beforehand.

And thus he quoted. "The proper stance a shinobi must assume when forced to battle close hand and outnumbered by the enemy should be one of readiness to encounter any attacks from all opposing directions. Thus, if possible, the basic tiger crouch should be induced, sideways and dropping in, exposing as little of the body as possible to the enemy while keeping as much of the adversaries in sight, arms and hands at the ready while keeping the feet pointing straight to allow full movement and not a fatal giveaway to the foes of a planned directional approach."

Afterwards, there was slight silence as heads turned in surprise and wonder. Oi…was that a tiny toddler back there…?

"…Well…" Began the teacher. "A simple 'defensive position 22' would have done..but an excellent explanation nonetheless!"

"…Uh…sensei…?" A small voice interrupted, as a hand slowly raised up.

"Hmm? Yes, Tonbo?"

"..Umm..whats a adver..adver..sarmeesomethin—"

"—Adversaries." A clear voice rang out. Heads turned again.

"It means bad guys." The purple eyed one smiled warmly as she continued in a friendly voice. "Basically, when a lot of bad guys are around you, crouch real low like a brave tiger and get ready to fight." The clock ticked by for two seconds, as the information digested. Immediately afterwards, every student in the classroom exclaimed in understanding union.

"OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH…I GET IT NOOOW…"

Amaya smiled. And Kakashi huffed angrily.

'…_Just when did she get so smart…'_ And then the boy thought back to their first meeting. The sly, little remarks she dropped offhandedly of him having a big head and such. And the sneakiness. No way that little brat could be so sneaky…Thaaaat's riiight. Pretend to be all cute and innocent—ugly and innocent…He was onto her.

"…What's your problem…?"

He didn't reply but continued to squint at her sideways untrustingly, crossing his arms. The girl wrinkled her face puzzlingly, then greatly stuck her tongue out while making an insulting noise. The boy made a disapproving irritated noise in the back of his throat while furrowing his brows deeper, sniffing and looking away.

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

"…Eeeh..Kakashi-san, why are you acting so weird…?" The other two matched the boy's wary and baffled expression. Kakashi merely scouted further ahead in response, highly tense and on guard like some rabid kung-fu street cat, swishing his arms in front protectively. He suddenly then appeared before the scar faced tot.

"Ssh. Be quiet." And just as quick, he reassumed his position ahead, edgily observing the surroundings. Yet he momentarily thought _'Geez…he's even younger then me..'_

Their current lesson was building teamwork and stealth using the classic four-man group. They had practiced this exercise times before, switching groups every time. This time though, the sensei decided to amusingly, as well as hopefully extra-motivating; place a boys vs. girls competition, winners proceeding to battle against the other victorious team. The game, capture the flag, ninja style.

"..Oi, Kakashi, Iruka-kun is right…you seem waaay too paranoid…" The child who spoke frowned, a hand to a hip. He sucked on the candy stick in his mouth thoughtfully then took it out in a considering manner. "I mean, what's with you, so what if we lose, its just another game with another team."

The boy in front seemed to have not heard at all and continued on with his jumpy movements, muttering to himself. "…Come out wherever you are…"

The ignored teammate hung his head wearily and stuck the stick back in his mouth. He reasoned that Kakashi had good reason to be extra jumpy around this particular team. Over the weeks, it became clear that the Hatake was in a class all of his own, even those older as himself held their classmate in awe.

The prodigy was a true shinobi, he never lost his cool. Except. Except around _her._ And he truly would be in a class of his own, if it wasn't. If it wasn't for _her._ '_Her_', as Kakashi tended to refer to, either _her _or _that sneaky little…female dog…_ or _rotten brat_.

He started to dub the girl more with the first and last names as the second had landed him in quite some trouble when a student had asked the sensei what _…female dog…_ meant, and innocently pointed out Kakashi as the source of the word when asked where the child had even heard such things. The sensei mumbled angrily at how a four year old had such an unbelievingly foul mouth.

_..Learned it off the streets._ Was the cool answer. But in any case, the girl proved herself as a worthy opponent nearly equal to that of the genius, occasionally correcting or adding on to things Kakashi said in the classroom and as usual, earning her a sour glare that was reflected right back. It didn't help that she found it irresistibly fun to 1.) sneaking up on Kakashi, earning her the well renowned talent of being the only one to cause 'eep' to utter from the boy's mouth, and 2.) to prod and goad him to no end for her own amusement.

The sensei kept the two seated together, but moved them to the front, to the half happy/protesting reactions of the two, so he could keep a closer eye in case one of them decided to finally strangle the other.

_Eeeh? Noooo, the 13th offensive position is best for that kind of situation._

_Baka, it's the 14th position that would be most benefiting._

_Shove it Scarecrow! It's the 13th! _

_Up yours. _

_What you say?_

_You heard me…_

Indeed, their teacher called it 'balance' as it were, yin and yang. Whatever you say sensei…the students deemed, obediently nodding along …just don't blame us when they kill each other…of course we absolutely tried to stop them sensei! What do you take us for! …We were running away to get help! …Yeees, it most certainly took every single one of us to run out and get help!

"Oi, Asuma!"

The pondering boy shook out of his thoughts and turned to the other.

"Does it look better behind the right ear? Or the left?" The eldest in the group, though undoubtedly not acting as such, punctuated his words by modeling the senbon first behind his right ear, then his left.

"Well?"

Asuma looked on with thin lines for eyes, the stick dangling slightly out of the corner of his mouth. He slapped his head with a hand.

"Jeez…Genma, do you have any idea how dumb you look…"

The brown-haired elder raised his eyebrows in question, then scowled teasingly. "Heh, not as stupid as those candy cigarettes you keep 'smoking'. Sheesh, I heard real smoking is bad for you, especially for ninja."

Asuma pouted his lips. "Well, _I_ like it. Plus, they make a nice treat." At this, he happily bit off a piece of the sugary stick to demonstrate. Genma only continued to shake his tutting head.

"Instead of lung cancer, you're going to get some major cavities."

The boy merely grinned and bit off another piece.

"Okay, now seriously, pay attention, you too Iruka, right ear? Or left ear?" He carefully modeled both aspects once more.

"How about in your mouth, so you can accidentally swallow and choke on it."

He twirled the senbon in the air and sighed. "Hahaha, very funny Asuma, or should I replace your smokes with chalk again eh? Besides, I tried wearing it as a necklace, in my hair, I even considered maybe piercing an ear for that gothic but tough guy look, and it would just get in the way of boogers if I made it into a nose pierce bullring minus the ring, just where can I put it…"

And finally. Genma realized something.

That wasn't Asuma's voice. That wasn't Asuma's voice, at all.

The stunned boy froze; missing catching his needle on its air twirl and without looking, he slowly moved his shaking hand to reach out to the slim, metal rod carrying the flag. The flag…yes the flag…eheh…where was the flag… As his hand desperately flailed around, feeling no hint of any kind of fabric, he wildly turned to face the short pole. Bare pole.

And along with the pole, his teammates. Hogtied, literally, apples in mouths-just where the heck did they get apples?-tied up to hang from a wooden rod shouldered up by two girls on each end. Who looked absolutely, positively smug.

Quite contrastingly, the two boys locked Genma with a fierce, burning glower that seemed to scream bloody murder: 'FIIIINAAALLY!-YOU-STOPPED-BLABBERING-AND-ACTUALLY-LOOKED-YOU-DIM-WITTED-DENSE-MORON-OF-A-BABOOOON!'

Yeesh…even that little squirt, Iruka, managed a decent, bone-chilling glare.

The red eyed girl shouldering up the end of the rod with Asuma on it, quirked an amused eyebrow and nicked the pack of candy cigars and started to enjoy one gleefully. Genma was a little relieved when one of the glares switched from him to target the robber. If anything, Asuma's glare intensified at the daring girl and changed its previous message to pinpoint the her with 'I'll-kill-you-I-really-will-kill-you…'

The boy quickly looked to Kakashi, who was…walking around in a large circle still muttering insanely…? A genjutsu? Specifically targeted on Kakashi? Oiyoiyoi…

A third girl emerged from the darkness of the woods, and tautened the rope with an ominous 'snap!' in her hands; a most evil smirk played on her lips.

Genma nervously smiled while sweat dropping immensely and started to back away.

"Hehehe…heeeey…Kurenai, Shizune, Kaida…what's up guys…" He then immediately pivoted to bolt, where a solid object met his chest. The fallen boy sat on his bottom and looked up at the foot that stopped him.

She lowered the foot back down. _Her _dark, purple eyes glinted diabolically as she tossed a red apple up and down in a hand. She then took a bite with loud 'crunch!' that made the boy wince in thinking what part of his body could make that sound.

"Like I said…that senbon would look good…inside your throat."

Rule 15: A shinobi must remain strong in the face of any kind of mental or physical torture or fear-inducing methods no matter the situation.

He felt a warm liquid soak the seat of his pants. He later learned that the yellow tint would never fully wash out.

_ooooooooooooooooooo_

_A little whiles later_

_ooooooooooooooooooo_

The four girls grandly marched into the clearing where their sensei was awaiting them. Two girls on each side proudly shouldered the three hogtied boys held up by a single, thick rod. The metal rod held the boy's team flag, hoisted high in the air by the grinning Amaya. Their sensei stood, watching the group approach, trying to keep a straight face; the shaking shoulders gave it away.

The boys, unable to speak with the apples lodged painfully, and firmly in their mouths, settled to glare accusingly at each other with mental messages of _You did it! No you got us into it! No it was so your fault! As if! Oh, go jump off a cliff! Gladly! Go stuff a sock in it! Too late, apple anyone?_

They stopped upon reaching the man, who desperately bit the insides of his the cheek to keep from madly grinning along with the girls. The three furiously shamed boys refused to look anywhere near their sensei.

"Well… 'snicker, snicker'…job well done… 'snicker' …girls. In record time too… 'snicker'." At last, the sensei seemed to regain control as he continued.

"Congratulations girl team #4, you nearly won the competition." He concluded with a smile. All seven students then gave a blank look and blinked, speaking in unison.

"…Near…leeee?"

"Yes, nearly." A familiar, composed voice stated as a projectile suddenly shot down from the air like a harpoon. A similar metal pole stuck slightly slanted but neatly in the ground, right before Amaya's feet. A flag waved at the top. Their flag.

Following the flag came a 'poof!' of smoke revealing Kakashi, lightly leaning against the flagpole with his arms crossed. He held up a hand in greeting. "Yo." The greeting was overly obviously meant for a certain, fuming girl, as it was directed at her. The boys were dropped to the ground in shock but yet they mumbled incoherently through their apples, eyes wide and brimming with admiration and thanks.

Despite his nonchalant appearance and tone of voice, inside, the masked boy crazily danced his happy dance while laughing insanely in triumph.

_'TAAAKE THAAT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! I WIIIIN! I FINAALLY WIIIIN! BOOO-YEAAH!'_

"…So…nice game." He calmly held out a hand.

'_NANANANANAAAAANA! III WIN, III WIN, III WIIIIN!'_

Having no other choice but to remain sportsmanship-like, Amaya forced a terrifying smile, eye twitching.

Still keeping the forced smile, she stated through gritted teeth. "…Yeah…nice game…hehe…"

Uh-oh. Bad move. But to take his hand back now…it would be strange and unsportsman-like. A quick shake, touch and go and—Ooooooowwww…

There was audible cracking as the girl continued to shake the boy's hand up and down. Kakashi steeled himself from yowling out in pain. Ooo…there goes a knuckle socket.. Her grip was _inhumanely_ strong and _brutal_. Amaya's smile quickly turned to that of a genuine one.

Her voice was creepy. Happy creepy. The over sugariness and glomps of syrup dripping from every miniscule millimeter of lettering in each word. "..Wow, Kakashi-san! You're soooo great and smart!"

'…_Yes..yes..you can let go of my hand now…hehehe…ssss…eeeeooowwwahhahaaahhhhh…'_

Crack! Pop! Pop! His hand couldn't move, pulling his arm back only rewarded him with new shots of pain. Fingers stuck out stiffly. He frighteningly wondered if they would fall off limply or shoot out in all directions like over pressured soda caps.

"I mean, escaping my genjutsu and everything! You're reeeally, reeeally gooood!"

'…_ahh..pain..pain…going…numb…numbing…'_ Would he resort to such measures? Yes, he would.

The numbing actually made it a bit easier to talk. "Ahahaha, it really is nothing...'grimace'...your team was by far the most challenging…weren't they…sensei…?" At the last part, he turned his head to the man-oi! was he snickering back there?-smiling and laughing along while flicking his eyes back and forth from their _still_ shaking hands to his sensei.

'_..Ah, I guess I should stop this before his hand is squeezed into dust..' _

"Yes, yes, good game everyone." He proclaimed, stepping in between the two, gently prying the shaking hands apart. Still eerily smiling, Amaya managed one final squeeze, before letting go. Behind the wall of protection that was their sensei, Kakashi gingerly nursed the hand but nevertheless gave a self-satisfied narrowing of the eyes at the girl. He could clearly imagine the smoke coming out of her nostrils as she snorted like a bull seeing red.

He couldn't help it. He really couldn't. It just happened. It had a mind of its own-as the saying goes.

With his non-injured hand, he reached a finger up and pulled down the skin under an eye, mockingly sticking his tongue out despite the mask, a little, moist tent forming to show so. Her own, signature, eye pull and stuck out tongue, especially reserved for him: thrown back with a vengeance.

Amaya's hands at her sides tensed like claws all too ready to gouge out the boy's eyes, limbs, anything. Seeing the threatening bordering on psychopath-ready-to-torture look on her face made him think if it was such a good idea to provoke her, but it was just too much fun and satisfying settling of scores-live and live more in the moment!

"Of course, Kakashi, I don't really know if your team should even be allowed to win."

The look that kid gave him was plain scary. Some would say that a four year old attempting a death glare would be entirely cheek pinching adorable. Those people had obviously not been acquainted with the Hatake kid. The chilling stare was just as equivalent as him holding a knife at his throat. The memo was all too clear. _..Don't. You. Dare…_

Suppressing a gulp, he regained his nerves and bravely continued on.

"Now, now, the girls actually did manage to capture the flag as well as capturing your teammates as well. Yes, you did came back with their flag first but think differently. What's the point of a ninja's success in a mission if he bargains all of his teammates in the process? A shinobi must take all matters in consideration and weigh the options, determining whether such sacrifice is actually necessary. I believe that last bit was dutifully explained by Amaya here last class." Here he gestured to the girl who couldn't be shining any brighter like the sun.

Kakashi looked down and slightly sulked, mumbling. "…Teacher's pet…"

Twitch. "…I _heard_ that…"

"And Amaya, completing the mission is one thing, but getting carried away is another. Remember the three key points a shinobi strives for when completing missions. As quickly, unnoticeably, and efficiently as possible. I believe it was Kakashi that pointed this out last class as well." Moving his hand to gesture to the boy who was looking in sideways with a pleased sneer.

It was her turn to look elsewhere and sulk. "…Teacher's pet…"

Twitch. "…Grrrr…"

"…hehe..fine…teacher's _dog_…"

"…This _dog_ bites…"

"All bark and no bite…"

"…Watch it…"

"Ehahaha…now you two, quiet down, I have considered the performance of both teams and have come to a clear verdict regarding a winner." Both teams looked up expectantly at their sensei.

"You're both winners! It's a tie!" The sensei beamed.

A very large CRAAASH sounded in the woods, followed by indignant shouts of which three were muffled.

"NAAAAAAAAANIIIIIIIIII!"

_oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_


	3. II: Bother Turned Anger

Disclaimer: 'I do not own Naruto or the aptitude test or Winnie the pooh.'

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Night Rain

II: Bother Turned Anger

…_Depart from my sight…_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

There must have been a mistake. Yes, a simple mistake. That he would correct later.

And he was definitely not curious as to what she had. Nope. It was purely to test his stealth and observational skills.

He told himself this as he causally stretched his head higher and peered over to his right. The girl's face was completely immersed in her own report card; without warning, she closed the paper fold and quickly turned to look straight at the side of the boy's head with a suspicious look. When the girl was back to examining the paper, Kakashi slowly turned to spy once more, barely managing to escape being caught as she whipped her head back to him again in lightening speed.

As he opened his own report card to review his rankings once more, he felt a prickling sensation on his neck in which he knew he was being watched. Kakashi turned his head to the right only to see Amaya innocently staring at the ceiling as if she were merely bored and passing the time.

Without further ado, Kakashi picked up his paper and walked over to the sensei's desk, placing the open report card on his desk.

"There must have been a mistake."

His sensei scanned over the ranks then raised an eyebrow at the boy. "Mistake?"

Kakashi gave a grim nod and pointed to a specific rank.

_Hatake Kakashi:_

_Subject/Class/School_

_Taijutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Ninjutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Genjutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Senjutsu 1/42 1/126 (A/N): senjutsu means strategy_

_Weaponry 1/42 1/126_

_Individual 1/42 1/126_

_Team 2/42 2/126_

"Hmm.." The man held the paper in a hand and flipped through a thick, grade book with the other, stopping on a page and running a finger across figures and calculations while looking back to the report card from time to time, frowning more.

Afterwards, he took out a red pen, uncapping it. "Ah, you're right Kakashi, please forgive me for this inconvenience. There is a mistake."

The boy couldn't look any more 'I-told-you-sooo' and awaited the due corrections.

"Amaya, please come here for a second with your report card."

Naturally, the students all murmured accusingly "Ooooooooooo…" ,as they usually did when one got called up by the teacher, before turning back to their own conversations and eager exchanges of who got what and so on. Kakashi watched her walk forth in disbelief.

'…_Don't tell me…'_

Exchanging their usual way of greeting-the squint of an eye and downturn of the mouth-Amaya placed her paper beside the boy's, her eyes subtly widening at his rankings, but not in amazement.

'_..Kuuusooo! I was soo clooose…'_ ((Kuso.—Damn.actually harsh word for 'you'))

_Ishiguro Amaya:_

_Subject/Class/School_

_Taijutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Ninjutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Genjutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Senjutsu 2/42 2/126 _

_Weaponry 2/42 2/126_

_Individual 2/42 2/126_

_Team 1/42 1/126_

'…_nooooo…can't be…'_ Kakashi, on the other hand, did stare widely in amazement at the girl's rankings. She was smart. He grudgingly, teeth-grindingly, under-threat-of-lifetime-torture, admitted that she was smart. Above average. Amongst the sharpest crayons in the box. Brightest crayons, whatnot. Etc, etc.

But not _that_ smart. Otherwise, he would have most definitely noticed. …Right…?

Regardless, the two papers were now handed back, the red marks bright against the contrast of the black and white. The youths openly widened their eyes, taking in the correcting marks while holding their own papers with both hands.

_Hatake Kakashi:_

_Subject/Class/School_

_Taijutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Ninjutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Genjutsu 1/42 1/126_

_Senjutsu **2** 1/42 **2** 1/126 _

_Weaponry 1/42 1/126_

_Individual 1/42 1/126_

_Team 2/42 2/126_

'………………_W-H-A-T.'_

_Ishiguro Amaya:_

_Subject/Class/School_

_Taijutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Ninjutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Genjutsu 2/42 2/126_

_Senjutsu **1** 2/42 **1** 2/126 _

_Weaponry 2/42 2/126_

_Individual 2/42 2/126_

_Team 1/42 1/126_

'………………_WOO-HOO!'_

"Sorry for the mishap. Thank you again for pointing that out Kakashi." The sensei gave a small smile and nodded his head. The boy scrutinized the paper relentlessly before peering over the top with mistrusting eyes. He wouldn't…couldn't..shouldn't…no..that would be utterly illegal and fraudulent..but…it was _too_ perfect, almost like a setup. …Almost..like he had expected him to come up, insisting on a mistake…

…Just how many sneaky people did he have to watch out for anyway…! Kakashi simply decided the whole world was just out to get him.

While the two were walking back-while one sulked back as the other skipped along-the girl couldn't hold back the overjoyed grin at what must have been the best day of her life. It could very well compete with that most spectacular, memorable event in which her sneaking ability was exceptionally good that day for her to manage a full-blown wedgie.

Well whadeeya know. He was the tidy-widy type. All the better. Wedgies never worked well with boxers.

Skipping beside the boy, she turned and gave a grin, eyes curving up. "Hehe." If he wasn't so pompously humiliated, if he wasn't so horribly shown up, if he wasn't so crammed with unbelieving, spitting, torrid fury…Maybe, just maybe he might have smiled back. That wide, carefree grin was rather contagious.

"..tch..can't believe this…still some mistake…senjutsu out of everything…" The low grumbles were picked up, and the girl's happy mood and face dissipated, transitioning into the usual surly scrunch of the face. She stepped in front of the boy, holding her place.

"No, really, what _is _your problem? Why can't you just accept things? For one, you don't work well with a team..or other people for that matter..and for a supposed genius, you over think way too many things. …Heh, remember the giraffe and the refrigerator?"

The boy scowled and looked away.

_ooooooooooooo_A Flashback of Sorts_ooooooooooooo_

"Class, you're in for a treat today!" Excited and curious murmurs buzzed around.

"A pop quiz!" The buzz died into grouchy moans and complaints; their sensei was too evil. Papers were passed along, and with it, confused expressions came. Kakashi paid no attention, too engaged in focusing for the quiz.

_'…Lets see, we've been recently working on ninjutsu..most likely on that. The hand seals and such. Maybe a review on basic taijutsu..and—'_

_Question 1: How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?_

_'…………Excuse me……?'_

He skimmed over the next questions, a surprisingly short but baffling quiz.

_'………………………'_

To his bitter astonishment, taps of moving pencils sounded out…the loud taps of many moving pencils. Including one to his right. Amaya was lightly smiling, leaned back in a blithe posture, a hand behind her head as the other zipped across and down the paper, producing neat marks. And then, barely seconds into the quiz, she placed her pencil aside and flipped her paper over; proceeding to lean back further with both hands behind her head and doze off. Others followed suit.

Impossible.

He was a bit relieved when others as himself looked around, perplexed at those scribbling away on their papers.

"10 minutes left!" Their sensei shouted out.

He cursed mentally and frowned. _'There must be some trick to this! But what?'_

"Oi…you need a little hint?" Amaya looked at him with slight worry. He realized he was staring back wildly while pulling on his hair. Kakashi immediately composed himself then snorted.

"Like I need your help."

At his response, the girl frowned angrily and returned the snort. "Fine."

Determined, Kakashi gripped his pencil and began to write.

_ooo_

Really. The things that were wrote down. Every year, the mass of answers never failed to surprise him.

_Question 1: How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?_

_Answer 1: --'Um…pickle?'_

_--'Kill the giraffe and any witnesses. Problem solved.'_

_--'…It doesn't have to be alive right? And…not bodily intact right? You can chop it up into tiny pieces and then put it in right?_

_--'Are you on crack sensei?'_

_--'I got it! Its all imaginary! An imaginary giraffe!'_

_--'Like I give a hoot.'_

_--'Um..um..um..I DON'T KNOOW! OH…NONONO…PLEEASE..I CAN'T FAIL!'_

_----_

_Question 2: How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?_

_Answer 2: --'…Trees?'_

_--'Kill the elephant and any witnesses. Problem solved.'_

_--'..Make elephant soup and store it away…?'_

_--'No, dude. Seriously. A-r-e y-o-u o-n c-r-a-c-k?'_

_--'Nothing's real…its all in the mind…an illuuuusiiooon..wooooooo.'_

_--'What part of I don't give a hoot do you not understand?'_

_--'OH CRAAP! THIS IS A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BIG SUPER TEST ISN'T IT? THAT MAKES OR BREAKS YOU!'_

_----_

_Question 3: The Lion King held an animal conference. All the animals attended except for one. Which animal did not attend and why not?_

_Answer 3: --'…Winnie the Pooh..'_

_--'Kill the Lion King, animals, and that one animal and any witnesses. Problem solved.'_

_--'Er...does it matter if its's chopped up into tiny pieces?'_

_--'Do you prefer to snort or inject it?'_

_--'Aaall iiin daaa miiind…in fact…I'm not even real…wooooooo.'_

_--'Your mom. Oh. Snap. Cuz she was too fat. Ooooh.'_

_--'THROWING EVERYONE'S GUARD OFF, ITS NOT A POP QUIZ IS IT? IT'S THE ULTIMATE TEST OF DOOOM! NOOOOOOO!'_

_----_

_Question 4: You must cross a wide, bridgeless river, but it is home to crocodiles. How do you manage to cross it?_

_Answer 4: --'…Duct tape fixes everything..'_

_--'I'm getting tired of this…kill the test maker and any witnesses. Problem solved.'_

_--'I don't suppose the crocodiles could be chopped up into tiny pieces..?'_

_--'Really. I'll keep it hush-hush. Where can you hook me up?'_

_--'Spirituality, man. The forces of life and peace, freee yooour sooouul…'_

_--'Chuck your fat mom in as bait and swim across while they're busy eating.'_

_--'IIII CAAAAAN'T TAAAAAKE IT! TOOOO MUUUCH PREEESUUURE! GAAAH!'_

Really. Kids these days.

_ooo_

"Time's up! Switch your papers with the person beside you and correct their answers." The man announced, rolling up the projector screen to reveal the chalkboard with the correct answers. There was a ruffling of papers as the students did so; keeping her laid back position and not opening an eye, Amaya smoothly slid her paper to the left with a mere side tap of a finger. She finally did open her eyes to correct the paper in front of her.

_Hatake Kakashi_

_Question 1: How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?_

_Answer 1: The series of the matter entirely depends on the specific conditions and situation. In such an instance, it may be stated that it is impossible to place a giraffe into a refrigerator. Or in other instances, the giraffe may in reality exist a toy or stuffed animal or perhaps a model and is thus able to be placed into the device. The method of how-to though, may be to remove the contents of the refrigerator and lead the giraffe in with the aid of such animal specialists with a lure of food most likely. Of course the size of the refrigerator is also not specified and can range as with the giraffe. The state of the giraffe is also not specified as such as well, and if alive, may be reduced into deceased, smaller pieces. The possibility of the matter in all has many outcomes and thus the answer is at most, inconclusive. At the most…_

She blinked her eyes with a most blank expression.

_--Chalkboard--_

_This pop quiz is to actually show if you tend to over think situations. Remember, a clear way of thinking is essential for ninja._

_Answers to Quiz:_

_Answer to Question 1: _

_1.)Open door._

_2.) Put giraffe in._

_3.) Close door._

Amaya thoroughly enjoyed marking a large, red 'X'.

_--Paper--_

_Question 2: How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?_

_Answer 2: (See above to Answer 1 and replace 'giraffe' with 'elephant')._

_--Chalkboard--_

_Answer to Question 2: _

_1.) Open door._

_2.) Take giraffe out._

_3.) Put elephant in._

_4.) Close door._

Well…at least he wasn't repetitive. Another happily marked large, red 'X'.

_--Paper--_

_Question 3: The Lion King held an animal conference. All the animals attended except for one. Which animal did not attend and why not?_

_Answer 3: Again, the situation is inexplicit in any details and a number of possibilities could be true. For one, specific invitations may have been carried out in which one animal was not invited. The idea of animals holding a conference for that matter may also be regarded with impossibility, a trick question to which the answer is that animals are not capable of such things. There is also the classic case in which taking the Lion King background, would lead one to answer the non-participant was the King's brother, 'Scarface.' Or perhaps the animal was something relating to the hippopotamus and such from being unable to travel from water for so long. Perhaps the meeting itself was canceled and none attended the conference. Or maybe all the animals were captured and/or killed by poachers and such. Or maybe the animal was the human being himself as humans are considered 'animals', mammals to be precise, but since there is no clear way of communicating, the human did not attend…_

_--Chalkboard--_

_Answer to Question 3: The elephant. He was in the refrigerator._

She knew her vocabulary, yes. But reading his answers were starting to hurt her head. And they were looooong. Amaya didn't know that it was possible to actually write that small in order for the answers to fit in the space boxes.

_--Paper--_

_Question 4: You must cross a wide, bridgeless river, but it is home to crocodiles. How do you manage to cross it?_

_Answer 4: …………_

Yes! He ran out of time! No long answer!…Ooohh..there's a back…and a nice little arrow to indicate it..

_…Well for one, the river is not necessarily stated to have been…_

And so on…she barely skimmed the lengthy response before tiredly placing another 'X'.

_--Chalkboard--_

_Answer to Question 4: Swim across. The crocodiles are at the conference._

For a genius, he sure was dumb. She slid the paper back indifferently while receiving hers with equal coolness. Her eyebrow twitched.

"Oi Scarecrow, and just why are all my answers wrong?" Amaya flicked the paper into his face, displaying the red marks he made. Kakashi merely looked back with disinterest.

"Well, the answer for the first one is 'open door', you wrote 'open _the_ door'. And for the second one you wrote 'put _the_ elephant in'. I'm just being precise. Shall I go on?"

The girl stared back in a doubting look, raising her brows. "Well you know…maybe I should just ask sensei to clarify what's right and wrong.." With this she began slowly stretching her hand up mockingly. The boy grumbled and snatched her paper back, crossing out the marks, and then shoving it back to her again. Lowering her hand, she smiled.

Yup, it helped not to over think. Seeing what was on the chalkboard before class started also helped too in its own little way.

_oooooooo_End the Really Long Flashback of Sorts_oooooooo_

"..Jeez..you have major issues… Stop taking life too seriously..you got to be more laid back. Just chill once in a while."

Kakashi sniffed and faced her with a fierce glower. A deep humiliation with an added reminder of another had him just a little more then ticked. "Life _is_ serious. You think everything is fun and games. Its not. And being a shinobi is definitely not _fun_ or a _game_. People like you…people like _you_...make me sick."

Any other day, and she would have passed it off as she normally did: his usual PMS'y go have a cow and bugger off days. But his bitter words held an unpleasant truth ringing to them that she didn't want to face. For once, sharp words worked their way up like building bile ready to be spat out instead of the typical retorts.

"…Yeah? Then, take life seriously. And go die. Die without happiness. You pompous ass." Like shadowy pools of unknown waters, her eyes churned darkly, hiding any looming sharks underneath. He was taken aback only for a second before irately regaining his enraged stance.

"You who were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, know nothing of suffering. Then again, why should I even blame you, you're just a kid."

"Poetic. And you aren't? You're a kid at heart for maybe 12 or so years, and by far less as a shinobi. Go ahead and label me a spoiled brat, but I'll tell you _this_, Kakashi-_san_." She leaned closer, radiating vehemence and embittered hurt.

"Hatake Kioko-sama was a good friend of my nurse. And she always said that life without joy is no life at _all_."

The bell rang. And the rest of the excited students piled out to show off their grades and later return for the afternoon to watch the graduation exam and cheer on the only two from their class nominated to take it.

"Kakashi? Are you okay?"

"...Hai...sensei."

The lone boy stood in the same spot before making his way to the door as the last to leave. It had been years since he heard his mother's name.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

…oh dear..quite a somber ending…


	4. II: Chipped

Disclaimer: 'I do not own Naruto.'

Thank yee thy lovely reviewers: _Ami lee-chan_, _realeza_, _Heart's Door_, and _BattleStations_.

--sheepish look-- I only hope that I can keep writing to your expectations. :-)

-Sidenote: …Ehm…if there are some people wondering…Kakashi means 'scarecrow' in Japanese…

(A/N): Eh...this chapter isn't as funny...there can only be so much constant, crack funny without a reasonable plot...mumble mumble..

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Night Rain

II: Chipped

..._An Amnesty_..._of sorts_...

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

_Onii-chan had to leave again. He leaves a lot. All part of onii-chan's becoming 'the heir'. He couldn't see me graduate. I had no one else to ask to come with me. Because no one else knew. And they couldn't. But if they did, I hardly think I would be noticed anytime soon. The future of the great Ishiguro line rests upon my older brother's shoulders. I am the extra. I am the dirt that comes with the dug up gold. But to onii-chan, I can be the small, cherished firefly that shines for him, lighting his darkness. And that's all that matters._

_o_

_I had forgotten her voice. Her scent. The sparkle in her eyes. I had forgotten how my father used to once smile and laugh genuinely and complain I was being spoiled. I had forgotten that she would make excuses then, and say she couldn't help but spoil her child who looked too much like his father. It had greatly amazed me that she wasn't a kunoichi or any ninja of sorts and was still able to whip my father into doing something. I was too young to completely walk yet. And I was too young to understand what cancer meant. And I had forgotten that my life was once brimming with happiness. Because I wanted to. Forget._

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

"Hmm…try again later this week, next!"

They truly were the youngest in the group. Everyone else was at least eight or nine, and the majority older. Looks were subtly cast towards the two children, wondering if they were lost and even belonged in line. The looks created a stronger feeling for the two to stick close, yet the morning acrimony still lingered between the two and hovered over their heads.

There was an awkward air of entrapment between sharing comfort in familiarity and closeness with each other amongst the greatly older and taller crowd clashed against the resentful, newfound soreness towards one another. Added in to the already hectic mix was the emerging realization and enlightenment discovered from the other's bluntly put words. The two also had time since the morning to cool their tempers down.

"Ishiguro Amaya."

"Whooooo! Go Amaya-chan!"

"Yeah! You can do it!"

"You go girl!"

"Kick major bootay!"

The girl lightly flushed at the attention and cheers from audience classmates as a small smile broke through. Stepping forward, the two examiners nodded for her to proceed. The year's exam was a bit tougher then those of previous, but unlike the preceding, participants were oddly given two more tries if they should fail on the first one.

'…_okay..lets do this..' _To perform the jutsus, she needed absolute concentration, and thus cleaned her mind of everything, taking a little longer then regularly.

'_Bunshin no Jutsu!'_ The minimum four, she created eight. The clones vanished with clouds of smoke as they were dismissed.

'_Katon: Tongue of Flames!' _A slender whip-like stream of fire emanated from her blowing mouth, focused into an 'o' shape. With precise control, she maintained a swirling figure eight. The minimum 5 seconds, she held it for 10. Each doubled respectively.

Traces of residual doubt was still clear on the expressions of the examiners, questioning on permitting a five year old to actually pass. But the child's talent was evident; she was more then capable.

After a brief confirmation with each other, one of the adults turned back to the anxiously waiting girl and announced their decision. "Congratulations, you pass."

More hoots and ovations boomed out as Amaya accepted her hitae-ate with impassioned pride and shaking joy, eagerly tying it into place across her forehead. She jumped around to face her classmates to show off the protector with valiant dignity, a most ridiculous, infectious grin couldn't help but surface onto her face. Even Kakashi helplessly bit back against the tiny smile squirming its way up. He soon snapped to focus though as he was called forth.

"Hatake Kakashi."

As he had solemnly expected, with a scant twinge of disappointment, there were no cheers and words of encouragement for him. The boy didn't exactly scream, 'social'. …What?-He was merely introverted... Some hardly thought the prodigy needed any support to begin with, others kept silent in respect, and several thought any cheering might disrupt his focus or cause him to become cross. Nobody wanted to take any chances.

"Oi! Scarecrow!" Quite a number of 'SLAP!'s broke the silence of the room. There were many hands to foreheads.

"OIII! Dog-breath! I'm talking to you!" More 'SLAP!'s followed. Numerous head bangs against the walls began. And those who were inexperienced with such forewarnings of a scene in the making remained utterly clueless.

His ears twitched, and the boy stiffly turned his head with jerky movements. The dangerous, unpredictable glint was back in his eyes.

The girl was leaning back, half sitting on a desk while crossing her arms. Slowly she lifted her head and met his eyes. "Don't screw up." A playful smirk, slight tilt of the head. And in that moment, the normality rushing back.

He paused, then gave a side-glance and smirked back. "Like I will."

There were a number of breaths let out in relief and some 'phew…'s were uttered while the clueless…remained clueless.

For each of the jutsus, Kakashi exceeded Amaya's performance by one. He showed not the slightest strain and executed each with smooth, tranquil ease. Nine clones and eleven seconds. As if deliberately surpassing her by just one more in mock.

Of course he would perform the fire tongue jutsu with his back to everyone but the examiners. And of course he would pull that _a-n-n-o-y-i-n-g_ mask back up with inhuman speed before she even got to peek. That paranoid ass.

"Congratulations, you pass." A small, polite applause was given accordingly.

"Heh! You better!" 'SLAP!'

Twitch.

_ooo_

The cloud of awkwardness had settled in again like a stifling presence. The occasional shuffle of the foot, tapping of the fingers. The two roved their eyes around restlessly, placing them anywhere but on the other, yet sneaking quick peeps once in a while: in the few instances they peeked at the same time, each promptly looked the other way.

Clarity had started to dawn upon the two as their only just granted forehead protectors weighed on their heads, signifying new beginnings as a true ninja. The quarrels of their academy days now seemed quite childish. Such things could no longer exist, as the duty of a shinobi was serious work.

"..Nooo.._you_ quit it.."

"_You_ quit it.."

"Stop it!"

"_You_ stop it."

"Quit peeking at me!"

"Quit peeking at _me_."

"Pah! What's there to peek at! A mask!"

"… Its called style…not like you would know…"

"Grrr…shut up!"

"Make me."

The sparks zapped out alarmingly from each other's eyes as they contested in their 135th ….or was it the 136th?…glare off. And just as quick, Amaya backed off and curved her eyes up happily in a truce. Kakashi sweat dropped and gave an uneasy grimace. Her fickle mood swings were just frightening sometimes…not that he would admit to any fear on his part of course.

She chirped a cheery tune, "Lets not fight anymore! At least for now!"

Liar. It was a trap. Some wicked scheme of foul play. An evil, underhanded plot. The boy cautiously narrowed his eyes and tensed his muscles, ready to spring into action at any moment.

"Oh!" She exclaimed in remembrance. "I forgot to give you your graduation present!"

AAAHA! So that was it. He knew immediately where this was headed, painfully recalling her very 'special' present to him on his birthday. Good god…five head lumps in a single day…and one very, prolonged pinch. He never really did grow that inch.

For every movement she made forwards, he mimed her exactly: in the backwards direction. Her foot forwards, his foot backwards. And so it continued as the boy held his hands out protectively in front of him.

"…Stay back…_back _I say…"

She merely continued to smile and step closer.

'…_Damn it…at this rate…' _Kakashi took a hasty look over his shoulder and troublingly realized he would soon back into the window. And then he would be trapped. And then the torture. And—Gaaah! How'd she get this close!

He had turned his head for barely a millisecond, knowing full well it was fatally unwise to let the girl out of his sight for any amount of time. He-will-not-show-fear-no-never. His jaw was achingly clenched with willpower, knees locked stiff as he faced her down.

"Heehee.." She was grinning now, eyes still curved up disturbingly. Running away looked pre-tty good to the boy now. In fact it looked rather dandy. But the proud Hatake gruffly shoved down any such cowardly thoughts, he would, _will_ not let some little twit show him up. He sniffed and stood immobile, using his height to look down his nose at her. It wasn't an inch, but it was a start.

Holding her hands behind her back, she leaned her front closer, the smile never leaving. He remained stationary with a grim face, bracing himself for whatever came next. But no matter the torment, he _will_ not cry out in pain and take it as the true shinobi he now was. No matter the head throbbing, teeth gnashing, dizzifying pain—

"..Happy graduation." She softly murmured before giving a purely innocent kiss.

Under his right eye, bottom half pressing on the fabric of his mask and the other brushing against the uncovered skin. His body had stiffened further into shock, eyes unimaginably wide and staring straight out. He could feel the eyelashes on his right eye sweep across her nose.

Meanwhile, a collective, horrified gasp had rippled in the room, some staring with bulging eyes. Those who were unfamiliar with the two and their history though, smiled warmly, cooing "awww…" at the adorable scene. Amaya drew back a little and cocked her head to side while giving a giggle and winking an eye.

He still couldn't move, frozen in his exact position. Perhaps it was because of the lack of blood in his limbs from all of it rushing to his face instead. His very ears were red. The redness was enough to likely attract an alien from outer space should they look down and observe a tiny red dot on the planet. It even seemed to glow out from underneath his mask, giving the black of the cloth a red tinge.

Jaws dropped further at the next act.

And this was where things got a bit fuzzy.

Some claim it was the window that did the trick. Others boasted the window had broke from the impact. And yet other stories ranged from her having used some powerful jutsu of some sort to growing horns and summoning a league of nasty hobgoblins.

But the basis remained the same.

Kakashi never saw it coming. Literally.

It was as if the scene kept replaying over and over in slow motion, the sound effects enhanced and sluggish. Too late did he miss the mysterious glint in her eye as she winked. Too late did he see the trademark smirk of mischief and ultimate disaster.

His last thoughts were among lines of _'…Kakashi…you fool…'_

A ninja must read underneath the underneath.

He only felt it. Felt it collide solidly under his chin with a deafening 'THUCK!' vibrating throughout the struck bone. He felt his bottom teeth slam into the upper set with a crunching smash, as if they would all shatter into fine dust. The force knocked him completely into the air as he turned and smacked straight into the window that was once behind him.

It was silent. All jaws to the floor, still dropping into a gross puddle, eyes leaping out 10 inches from sockets: silent. The only sound was the screeching of the boy's face as it gradually slid down. There was a clear imprint of his squashed face against the pane; trace marks of his face were left as it squeaked its way further and further down. And finally, his head hit the floor with a soft thud. And he laid there, facedown and motionless, spread-eagle.

The clock ticked by.

It were the academy students who reacted first, drawing in a deep breath.

"DAAAAAAANNNNGGGG…HE GOT OWWWNED…"

Even Amaya looked a bit surprised, and then sheepishly scratched her cheek with a finger, bashfully smiling. "…I didn't mean to hit so hard…hehe…just came out that way…"

Again, it were the same students who reacted.

"Hehehe..now you owe me a whole bag of sweet dumplings!"

"Ah..man..there goes my whole stash of gummy worms.."

"..Um..uh…how about instead…a paper clip, bottle cap, half chewed piece of gum, and a penny…and…and…a clip of my hair sound…?…Please…?"

"…Ha! You lost! Now you have to go eat ten worms alive!"

"…Ah.. Kakashi…letting me down like this…"

"Wait! Wait! It doesn't count yet! It hasn't been a full minute! C'mon…get up…"

There were curious looks cast towards the raucous crowd of bargaining children who were cashing in their bets like an angry hive of stockowners.

"NEV-AH FE-AH! The broken-half-of-a-ruler-replacement-for-me-stick-of-poking-power is he-ah!" Brandishing the broken ruler like an almighty sword, she launched to the boy's side and began poking whilst crouching down.

Poke-poke-poke-poke…

Over the noise of the bartering, Amaya yelled out in a whining, tired voice.

"Mr. Examiner duuuude! I think he's deeeeaaad! What do I do noooow? Do I feed him to wooolves or whaat?"

"I _told _you _no_! Now fork it over!"

"There was nothing about punching him, we clearly agreed on a strangling match!"

"..Ooooh..but its my last pieces of candy!"

"No waaaay! It was totally the window that knocked him out! Not her! So no dice."

One of the examiners rubbed his temples to drown out the loudness and ease the coming on headache, motioning the next exam participant away, indicating it would take some while before they started up again. The other looked equally stressed and sighed, sagely nodding his head.

Yup. Definitely more then capable.

_ooo_

He decided he liked the pretty, swirling colors. They were fairly pretty after all. Especially the purple ones. The swirling purple colors were quite pretty.

"WAAAAKE UUUP YOOOOU WIIIIIIMP!"

Did he say…'pretty'? Hell no. They were downright horrid. His sight finally cleared and the most gruesome sight met him. She was widely grinning down at him. He curiously noticed that she had a dimple high in her left cheek.

_oooooooo_A little whiles before_oooooooo_

"Jeez…Amaya…you really nailed him…"

She merely huffed, inspecting her nails as tired glances were made at the knocked out boy and to the indifferent girl. Kakashi was lying on a desk in the exam room, the tests had continued again. Inquisitive faces surrounded and leaned in around the boy, wondering just when he was going to arise.

15 minutes had passed before he finally started to open his dazed eyes only to close them again and repeat the cycle. All the same, excited shouts still cried out in hushed tones when he stared around dizzyingly again for the fourth time, and died down into disappointment as he again closed them.

Letting out an impatient sigh, Amaya walked towards the ring of students.

"…All right…step back…I'll fix this…"

The crowd quickly diverged for the girl, as she stood right beside his head. She frowned, and then took a deep breath.

_oooooooo_End the little whiles before_oooooooo_

She continued to proudly grin as she straightened, satisfied that the boy was completely awoken. Kakashi groaned in soreness and slowly sat up, rubbing his aching jaw. Carefully so, he moved his tongue around inside his mouth to check for any damages. A bit tender, but his teeth were all in place and thankfully not shattered into fine dust. Except. A small chip in one of his front teeth. He could feel the small groove as he slowly ran his tongue under it.

Damn…it was his still growing, permanent tooth too..his first one on top of that. With an irritated scowl he turned to Amaya. The two had long since developed their own method of communication with various expressions and actions that still remained a confusing mystery to others.

_What was that for?_

Bigger smile. _Hi!_

Eye narrow. _Stop playing dumb…_

Wrinkle of the nose, satisfied smirk. _Hehe…you did say…'make me'._

Snort, scowl. _Sneaky little…_

Pursed lips, lines for eyes. _..Finish that sentence…I dare you…_

Low growl. _……… _Sniff, eye quirk. _……bitch…_

Clenched fist up. _WHY YOU!_

The departed ring had watched the exchanges of expressions nervously, backing away all the while. They didn't need to know what the girl's raised fist meant though, the message was clear enough and quite straight forward.

"Hehehe…Amaya-chan..lets go…umm…to that spot…for a while."

With her fist still raised in a threatening manner, barely held back by the others, she was dragged away to a safe distance. In the meantime, more odds and bets sprung up.

"EEEEEEWWWWWW!" There was suddenly a large eruption of screams as a green-faced Iruka nauseously threw up bits of worms that still wiggled around in the mess that was his lunch.

The exam halted once more as the children were intolerantly shepherded outside.

"Haha! You threw up! That doesn't count! Now you have to eat ten more worms!"

There were more ear-splitting shrieks as some turned green themselves, gagging and threatening to vomit, taking after the queasy boy who threw up the rest of his stomach.

"OUT!"

_ooo_

Kakashi still looked around hopefully, despite prior knowledge of his father's mission. There were no signs of the tall, silver-haired man; his shoulders slightly slumped as his face fell. The rest of the graduates modeled their hitae-ates with pride to their parents. Others did so to older siblings or close family friends who warmly praised them. He stood alone; feeling like an outsider in the mass of people he walked out to head towards a place where he often liked to sit and think before school had started.

He found it already occupied with another who sat on the lone swing, the side of her head resting against the rope as the wind gently swung her back and forth. Her eyes were downcast with a saddened, loneliness to them that reflected much of his previously. Of all the graduates Kakashi had expected her to be surrounded with the most family, given, as she was a regal daughter of the Ishiguro. He was debating on whether to walk up to her when a hand placed itself on his shoulder from behind.

"Boo."

He couldn't help but jerk in shock at the hand, but quickly turned with a ready kunai. He blinked for a moment to grasp the situation of which he unexpectedly found himself in: his arm was forced back by a powerful grasp so that his weapon pointed at the back of his neck that was revealed more by a second strong hand clutching the top of his head, forcing it down so the boy faced the ground.

There was deep chuckling from behind. "Hahaha…you're getting better, I'll tell you that." His head and hand was released as Kakashi turned around again, but knowing full well whom the person was.

"Otou-san!" The man was leaned down to the boy's height, crouching on a knee.

"Hey. I finished my mission early. …Hmm?" Sakumo peered closer to the boy, poking Kakashi's nose twice. "Your face looks a little swollen…and…why does your face smell like windex?"

His face took on a flush as he embarrassingly looked to the floor and shifted his eyes. His tongue automatically ran under the tooth chip.

"..U..u..umm…t..t..that…umm…" He mumbled words disjointedly for a response, looking elsewhere.

"…Ahmm..okay then…Well, knew you would make it." He tapped a knuckle against the boy's protector. A rare smile grew on the child's face, one matching the warm pride in his heart that shined through out of his eyes. The protector gave way and slipped down into a blindfold.

"Haha, you'll grow into it." With the adoring warmth growing more fulsome in his face, Kakashi lifted the hitae-ate back up with both hands as his father helped so with a thumb.

"No way, he'll always stay scrawny."

'_!'_

Besides his father, she was the only one he knew who had the uncanny ability to sneak up on people, specifically on him. While the boy once again leaped in surprise, much to his shame of doing so in front of his father, Sakumo didn't twitch in the slightest and turned his head to greet the girl in a friendly manner.

"Hello there." His eyes swept across her in a recognizing gaze then curved up. "Ah. So you're the one Kakashi likes to draw pictures of to play kunai target practice on. Nice to finally meet you in person."

'_!'_ Heeeh? Another sneaky person to add on to his growing list of sneaky people to look out for. And he was family too! Well gosh darn it if there wasn't an elaborate conspiracy set against the boy…

"Otou-saan…" Kakashi growled forebodingly.

"..Is that so, scarecrow…" Amaya gave a respectable growl of her own. His tongue unconsciously ran under the chip. …Wasn't she sitting on the swing just a minute before…looking all gloomy and desolate? …Those scary mood swings of hers…

But still, if anything, Kakashi was steadfast in his will not to act like a barbaric child in front of his father.

"…Neh…you have a mask too?" The girl was staring bafflingly at the man with a concentrated look. She pointed a finger and questioned critically. "…Are you part of some weird Japanese mafia gang?" Then she seemed to notice the striking similarities between the father and son. "EEH? Are you part of some weird Japanese mafia gang that makes mini-clones of themselves?"

Kakashi abruptly appeared between his father and the girl, his arms out as if trying to protect the man from any harm, sweetly resembling an overprotective toddler warning their parent not to touch the stove after their recent discoveries of it being hot.

"Show respect for your elders! _Especially_ for one as great as my father!"

"Haaataaake-saamaa, tell your mini-clone to stop being anoooyiiing."

"I'm-not..ah..gah!..what are you doing here anyway?"

"Mm?" She then clapped her hands in recollection. "Oh yeah! I had something to give you!" Here, she started to dig into her pockets.

Instincts were stronger then pride and on impulse Kakashi hid behind his father's still crouching back, poking his head out to watch warily. Sakumo turned his head with a questioning look, though he was undeniably amused. The boy raised himself onto tiptoes and whispered guardedly into the man's ear.

"Be careful…She's a monster in disguise…" The dead serious tone of his voice while giving the advice only caused the listener to quietly snigger more.

"Ah! Here you go!" Amaya happily put forth a small molar tooth.

'_..Uuuhwhaa?'_ With mounting dread he only realized whom the tooth could have belonged to. He had been absolutely sure that nothing was knocked out... Thinning his eyes into leery slits, Kakashi quickly popped back behind his father to secretly check again with a finger. Indeed, there was a gap in the far back of his lower jaw where his tongue couldn't reach. But then…

Pulling the mask back into place, he popped his head back out and glared suspiciously. Before he could speak the girl rolled her eyes and already replied with a ready retort.

"_I_ was the one who got the school nurse to treat you in her office…_alone_." She added the last part when seeing the accusing look. He didn't need to know just how very hard she tried to peek through the door while the nurse doctored him.

"The medic gave me this tooth to give you since I had kno—"

Kakashi swiftly appeared behind her, clapping her mouth shut with a hand. The indignity needed not to be relived.

But what would work? ...Death threats? No. ...Saying please? Definitely a no. …Begging? Not. In. This. Lifetime.

Stern eye twitch, head tilt. _I'll give you two bags of sweets if you shut up._

_Five._

_Three._

_Four._

_Three and a half._

_Done. The kind with honey in the middle. _

_What! Those aren't cheap!_

_Hehe. Too bad._

…Umm…were they communicating telepathically somehow…? Sakumo was standing now, observing the exchanges of facial expressions with a mystified stare. They seemed to agree on some kind of pact as Kakashi carefully and slowly removed his hand, just incase the girl decided to change her mind.

"Right. So here's your tooth!" The boy seized it quickly out of her hands, yet continued to squint at her skeptically.

She rolled her eyes again and stated matter of factly. "..Sigh…nooooo, I didn't do any voodoo with it..that would be really stupid since I could always pluck out some of your hairs…like this!"

She beamingly waved three strands of hair in front of his face. He did a wide-eyed double take and raked his hands through his hair troublingly. ..How did she…?

Amaya causally flicked the hand holding the hairs back, causing Kakashi to catch nothing but air.

"Grrrr..you sneaky little…"

...It slipped out, it really did. A force of habit.

But that didn't stop Kakashi from getting lightly smacked upside the head by his father.

"…Kakashi..what did I tell you about cursing?"

The boy merely grumbled in response while nursing the back of his head, glaring at the snickering girl.

"Meh." She blew the hairs into his eyes before walking off. "See ya in an hour."

It greatly irked him that he was only able to find two hair strands.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_


	5. III: Thief : Spy : Punk

(A/N): …Alas and woe is me…school...

(mindlessly hums)….hmmmm…both Obito and Rin graduated at nine…lookie there…Kakashi must have had a previous team then… o.o

-Weirdness is good! - The world needs more weird people! Heehee.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Night Rain

III: Thief : Spy : Punk

…_Fate must have some strange sense of humor…_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

"Did you get lost huh? You better return that hitae-ate to the lost and found." A couple more snickered along with leering boy. The child did not let the height difference faze him and merely stared up coolly with an apathetic look. He started to walk around the group when a finger jabbed into his forehead. The older one continued with a scorning tone as the others whooped encouragingly. "Hey kid, the pweeschoolers are in thwat woom. Or you can just go home and cwy to your moooommy. "

_ooo_

Amaya nearly tripped over the three, people out cold on the floor near the doorway. She carefully wormed her way out of the various dislocated arms and legs and took a seat in the room. She lowered her head self-consciously, looking around at the others who were scooting away and looking completely petrified at the sight of another five year old.

"Amaya! Down here please!"

Still looking around curiously, the girl slowly walked down to the front of the classroom to where the adult kunoichi had called her. With her were a hooded Kakashi and another boy looking their age with startling dark olive eyes. The woman leaned down to the group with a large smile and lively voice.

"Now you guys get to be grouped early, your sensei is already waiting on the roof 'kay?"

Kakashi was crossing his arms and fixing the woman with an intent look, the other boy creased his brows confusingly, while Amaya was hardly paying attention and continuing to gaze around at the wide eyed stares directed at them, more so at the masked boy.

"…Ano…Aren't genin teams…separated according to skill levels..and not age group?"

Observant the mouse-like boy was, the kunoichi blanked for a while before nervously laughing.

"Of course, of course Kiyoshi, we had decided the three of you balanced each other perfectly."

"—Meaning: 'we had decided it was best to place you freakishly young ones together as it would be more convenient then with other somewhat normal 9-12 year olds." Kakashi was still in quite a sour mood.

"Uh-oh, I think someone's a wittle bit too cranky. Does that somebody need a biiig wowwipop?" Here the leaning woman flourished out a large, spiraling lolli—wowwipop..from behind her back. From under the hood, an eye began to twitch while those cowering behind the desks violently shook their heads trying to warn the unsuspecting woman.

"Ooo! Ooo! I'll take it!"

Snatch.

The wowwipop was promptly snared out of the adult's hand that it took some time before the woman, staring at her outstretched hand, realized it was empty.

"Ohhhh…rats…" Amaya pouted at not having been quick enough.

"Hmph…" Kakashi held the candy safely away inside his crossed arms; he turned and mumbled quietly to himself. "…its my wowwipop…"

"Now, now, don't worry, I have wowwipops for both of you too!" The other two were unquestionably happier at this and took to licking merrily while they were driven towards the door.

While walking in the hallways, understanding finally reached the girl and she immediately complained.

"…Sigh..why do you _always_ have to be in my life somehow…"

"I can ask the same question."

"And why _do_ you have a hoodie on? Hehe..you look gangsta-ish."

He grumbled under his breath something about voodoo and hair plucking. Alas, Amaya heard bits of his grumbles and remarked resignedly.

"Wear your hitae-ate as a bandana or a doo-rag then, its more stable then a hood."

Kakashi then distantly grumbled something about poofy hair.

"..Neh..Kiyoshi right? Exactly how old are you?" Amaya curiously eyed the chocolate haired boy who was curiously smaller and shorter then her.

"…Um..s..seven…" He softly answered.

"Eeeh? Really? Okay then. Hi!" She gave a welcoming grin with smiling, arched eyes.

"…H..hi…" It was hard for the quiet boy to believe the girl was the one in the stories floating around the school. Strange stories. He knew they were greatly exaggerated, but even myths had some basis of truth for it to even exist.

Upon reaching their destination, the three looked around the empty rooftop oddly.

"..Not even punctual…what kind of Jounin is this…" Kakashi muttered disapprovingly.

They all jumped at the sudden interruption of explosions.

"WELCOME! WELCOME! CONGRADULATIONS! YOU THREE HAVE THE GREAT HONOR OF BEING MY POTENTIALLY, VERY FIRST GENIN TEAM!" The young man had made an incredibly glitzy entrance, as he stood in front of them with a great, beaming grin while confetti descended from the air and mini fireworks went off around him.

Kiyoshi was still shocked and wide eyed, Amaya was delighted with the fun display, and Kakashi had his head skewed, twitching with an unbelieving look.

"..Hmm?" The man peered closer, speculation in his sky blue eyes. Squinting and focusing chakra, he realized there was no cast illusion of any sort to make them appear like toddlers..but maybe so..

"…Uh..Hahahaha…" He scratched the back of his head while still smiling. "…real funny, cute. You guys can release the henge now."

All three then fixed him with serious stares. Kakashi spoke up.

"…These…are our real forms."

Awkward pause. A lone cricket chirped in the background.

"…But of course!" _'…The academy…sent me…little…toddlers………?'_

"Well, anyway, lets all introduce one another! Hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams, and so on, things like that. Starting with the left." The eccentric grin was back on his face.

"Hatake Kakashi. These '_hobbies' _you speak of, are of rubbish pastimes in which more training can be done. I do not like anything in particular. However, I dislike people who are annoying, rash, idiotic, rude, and sneaky in a bad way."

The spiky blonde raised an eyebrow at the last comment, but remained silent for the boy to finish.

"I aspire to become as great as a shinobi as my father, Hatake Sakumo, and bring honor to my family name."

"Me next! Me next! Hihihi! I'm Amaya! Mmm…I like lots of stuff, like candy, and sugar, and climbing trees, and chasing raccoons, and digging, and playing, and candy, and catching frogs, and exploring, and coloring, and giving wedgies, and…" She continued to list off one by one on her fingers, much to the rising frustration of the hooded child and the slight sweat drops of the others.

"—Ah, Amaya, as much as we'd like to hear your many hobbies and likes—" Here Kakashi snorted loudly. "We have to give your other team mate a turn too."

"Oh okay. Hmmm…well…I don't really dislike anything…" She stated while scrunching her face in thought. "Except for dog-breath here, he can just go to hell." She concluded so with a most normal, cheerful voice and an ingenuous giggle and grin.

'…_Kids these days…'_ Mentally sighing, the Jounin nevertheless gave an interested smile.

"And my dream is to make my onii-chan proud!"

A sniff. "Too late."

"What was that…"

"Do you require a hearing aid?"

"—Moving. On. Now. Lit-tle. Chil-dren."

They both huffed heatedly and looked the opposite way.

"….Umm…I'm Kiyoshi. I like playing shoji a lot…my favorite color is blue…and I guess I don't like…arguing much. My dream is to…live..happily…?"

The man gave an encouraging nod. Ah..one normal kid.

"…But...ano…sensei…what did you mean by 'potentially'?" Kiyoshi hesitantly asked.

The man smiled and noted the boy's keen observation skills.

"Ah, well, before that let me congratulate all of you for making it this far and successfully graduating!" The three did not brighten but only grew uneasy at the man's use of 'this far'.

"And now there's just one more test before you guys can officially become genin!"

WUMP!

"W..w..whaaaaa? I thought we were already genin!" The girl horrifyingly cried out, miserably staring out. Kakashi equally looked shocked, but more outraged, irritated with himself for not suspecting that earlier glint in his father's eyes. Kiyoshi was twiddling his thumbs fretfully, though seeming to have half-expected such a surprise twist.

"Yes, well, 66 percent of failure rate, etc, etc, only nine get to pass and other technicalities…the details are all in these papers, see you guys tomorrow at 3 am sharp!" With another grin, he held up a hand in farewell and turned. "By the way, make sure not to eat anything if you don't want to throw up!" He stated this casually with the grin still on his face. The group blinked and rubbed their eyes at the vacant spot in which their sensei had seemingly flickered out of.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

They soon learned how early three in the morning exactly was, or night..it was still quite dark. Even Kakashi, who was used to arising early for daily training, could not hide his weariness. Underneath the carefree smile, they all agreed their sensei was a cruel and evil being.

"…Sooo…huuungrrrry…" Amaya was lifelessly lying on her belly, hollow and growling belly. "Aaaand… 'yawn'…sleeeepy…" She crawled zombie like, only using her arms, to a patch of grass she deemed suitable enough as a pillow and tried to doze. Kiyoshi was sitting and leaning against his large pack filled with all his shinobi equipment as instructed by the orders on the paper. He equally sighed with exhaustion as he hung his head, his tongue limply drooped out. Only Kakashi remained standing, remindful that a ninja must always be alert. From time to time he jerked his sagging head to attention, before nodding off again.

"GOOOOOD MOOOOORNIIIING EVERYOOOONE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

All three were wildly standing frigid, sharply gasping for breaths while clutching their chests. The Jounin thoughtfully stood back and allowed the group to recover from their heart attacks. Fortunately, they at last stabilized, letting out a collective recuperating puff of relief.

"STOP-DOING-THAT!…. please." They all shouted, the politeness added on as a prudent afterthought by Kiyoshi.

"What, you mean this?"

"EEEEEE!"

Two heart attacks in a row couldn't possibly be any good for one's health. Heart attacks on empty stomachs couldn't be good either. Their sensei stood behind them, cheerfully waiting for them to recover from their second shock.

"All right then, lets get started shall we?"

Three curious faces blinked alongside each other at the two bells held out in front of them.

"Get a bell, become a genin. Don't get one, and fail. And as an extra incentive, those, if any, who manage to get a bell will be treated by me at Ichiraku's." The man's bright and wide smile was in stark contrast against the children's slit eyed stares. The slow, angry grinding of sets of teeth could be heard. As if to emphasize the situation, their empty stomachs loudly growled simultaneously.

"…Wait…but..there's only two…"

"Bravo. You can count."

"No dur, I'm asking why there isn't three."

"Its called two. T-w-o. Don't you get it?"

"Obviously _not_, why else would I point it out?"

"Because it's a mistake you graduated from preschool in the first place."

"…Umm..hehe…c'mon guys…can't we get along..?"

"—ANYWAYS." He eyed the two sternly as a warning before continuing. "There are only two bells. Meaning at least one of you will be sent back to the academy. Who knows, I might just be in the mood to tie up the loser or losers to those log posts over there and just eat something right in front of you guys."

At this the three grimaced, taking hold of their aching tummies and mentally agreeing that their sensei was indeed cruel.

Amaya weakly raised her hand. "Can I call upon my rights as a human being entitled to exemption from cruel and unusual punishment?"

"No."

"As a growing girl in need of food?"

"You have plenty of time to grow."

"Child labor laws?"

"…Labor?"

"…Child abuse?"

"…." He fixed her with a funny look.

"..Hehe…worth a shot…"

"…Okay then…well, you have until high noon." The young man set the alarm clock atop a post and tied the bells off to the side on his belt before turning to face the team with a beaming smile that made the children wonder if he was a mechanical robot that required no sleep or some fanatical coffee addict.

"BEGIN!"

There would have been three 'whooshing' sounds leaving three void spots. If, it had not been three in the morning. Instead, the sudden shout of commencement spooked the kids out of their half-asleep state, causing them to hectically leap away uncontrollably.

To the fault of this as well as the dimness of light, the Jounin winced at the sound of skulls smacking into each other resoundingly in the air. As such, three thuds soon followed.

"…Uuughhh…."

"….Eeeeegghhh…."

"…Loook at all the pweeety staaars…"

"…Sigh…all right, hang on for a second."

Three icepacks later, the trio set out again. This time bounding away with adequate 'whooshing' sounds.

_ooo_

'_This is frustrating…'_

Kakashi tightened his abdomen muscles once again to keep the rumbles of his pleading stomach contained as to not give away his position in the tree branches, though he greatly suspected the Jounin likely knew of all their whereabouts anyway.

Darkness, fatigue, hunger: the odds were stacked against them. Fresh out of the academy with such disadvantages against a highly seasoned-well, his sensei looked pretty young, late teens really…-Jounin equaled d-e-a-t-h-h-h-h-h. Okay not death, but all the same it ensured ultimate doom. Then again, he reminded himself that all his objectives were to acquire one bell out of the two. Perhaps the purpose of the test was to use take any shortcomings and use them to one's advantage. Either way, the Jounin would dearly pay.

_ooo_

'…_Huuuungrry…'_

He looked quite appetizing. In fact, the man was a standing entrée. And no, that prior, little bonk on the head had certainly not damaged the child's brain. The picture would appear quite comical if one was simply looking in, unknowing of its context: a small girl hunched over and prowling around on her fours in the shrubberies and bushes with a large bag of ice tied atop her head that tipped her balance off while she lurked about.

The girl wore an insane grin showing off her gleaming teeth, light drool dribbling down. Her eyes were wide and glowed eerily with an animalistic, feral sheen. Rather then a dutiful kunoichi set on a mission, Amaya resembled more of a ravenous predator stalking its prey. Where there were hands, she saw dumplings; where there was hair, she saw a scrumptious fried egg yolk. It was only a matter of when to strike.

_ooo_

'…_Mm…sleep…good…'_ He COULD, he reasoned, he COULD attempt to obtain a bell. He could always plan out what strategies might work and such. He could always try to locate the other two members of his teammates, inform them the true objective of the bell test, and then develop tactics.

The traditional genin test for academy graduates designed as a trial of teamwork and cooperation. But the particular tree branch he lied on was unusually comfy and snug. It was nicely peaceful too. A pleasant change of pace. Hmm…how did that song go? The one with the rocking cradle…and the bough…and the…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

_ooo_

'_..Hmm…interesting..'_ Indeed, the Jounin knew of all three whereabouts and acknowledged their satisfactory skills in stealth and concealment. Although, he disturbingly mulled over why slight..snoring sounds could be heard from above, why the girl was lowly growling while encircling the perimeter around him, and why the man could make out a clear, spiteful death aura radiating out from the young Hatake.

And then some things happened at once.

--

1.) A wet drop of…something that was hopefully not saliva…dripped down from above onto the bridge of his nose.

2.) "Seeeenseei…" The boy tugged the side of the man's pants and looked up with large eyes and started, much to the Jounin's frightened shock and alarm, sniffling and crying. "My head still hurts..reeeeaally baaad…" All of which was said, while the death aura could still distinctly be made out. The kid had a good chance to make it big as a child actor.

3.) "BAAAANZAAAAI!" Tearing through the bushes was the pouncing girl, mouth open wide with clawed hands. The crazed look in her eyes added on to the shock of the man, hence, she met her target and managed to bite then gnaw the top of his head while muttering nonsense involving fried eggs.

4.)"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" The wind had blown, and the bough had broken. And down came baby, flapping arms and all.

--

One large dust cloud arose from the various thuds. There were four sets of swirling eyes: Amaya was still biting into the golden fluff of fried egg goodness, Kakashi was still at his sensei's leg spread eagled face up, Kiyoshi had his tongue out in Dooly fashion with his chin propped up on the man's side. And the Jounin in question laid out sea star style his tongue also out, but flopping out limply to the side.

Kakashi, though, still had some sense left and saw the perfect opportunity to attain a bell. With deliberate caution and slowness, he reached across his sensei to the bells; his heart pumped faster as sweat started to trickle down. And finally, his fingers brushed against the cool metal and encircled around both of the bells-heck, why not get them both-he smirked in confidence and at the thought of the girl tied to a log post.

The bells were now safely in the boy's possession, Kakashi stared at them almost unbelievingly in his hand; it had been too easy. With the others still dazed on the ground, he backed away a distance, still in some shock over the ease of passing the test.

"Eeewww…AAACK! PTOOEY!" Amaya had also regained herself and had seemed to been purged of her predatory trance, though her mouth tasted oddly of herbal essences and tree bark. Of course the latter was likely due to the tree log that was previously in her mouth.

'_Subsitution!'_ Kakashi then looked down to see two acorns in his hand. Cursing, he angrily cast away the useless 'bells' to the ground.

_Jingle, jingle._

"I must say, none of the teams really did figure it out. You guys just might really have the great honor of being my first potentially genin team." The grinning man walked towards the children, the bells jingling with each step.

'…_Figure—'_

'—_it out..?'_

Amaya and Kakashi stood and tilted their heads to the side while Kiyoshi sighed knowingly.

He smiled and pointed a thumb to himself while patting the bells at his side."But you guys are going to have to work together even harder to get the bells from me."

"…Work together…?—Uumph!" She was elbowed in the side by the dark haired boy before she then enlarged her eyes in understanding. "Oh...ooooooohh…hehehe…of course…work together…"

The three nervously laughed together at their sensei, who was now regretting his words and giving them a dubious stare.

They started sweat dropping even more and proceeded to step closer in a side group hug, arms draped across shoulders, and gave even bigger, psychotic smiles that only gave the man the creeps.

"…Hehe..right, soooo…we have to go and work..on team stuff and all…" The boys nodded along with the girl and together they disappeared from the spot. The Jounin amusingly noted how they had vanished even quicker then him.

_ooo_

"…Ano…what are you doing?"

"What does it look like."

"Eating ice chips…?"

"Noooo…" Amaya leaned in closer to Kiyoshi waving the piece of ice as if holding the greatest secret in the world. "Eating a piece of _sembai_…" She held the ice chip majestically high in the air, gazing at it adoringly with feverish eyes. "…A delicious bite of sembai…"

Kiyoshi groaned with a hand to his face. "She's losing it."

"She's _been _losing it." Kakashi stood off to the side, leaning against a tree and mindlessly fiddling with a kunai with a hand. "Kid, she's mental. Best not to get involved with her."

"No really, I think she's coming down with something, her forehead is too hot." Kakashi looked to observe, as a matter of fact, a pinkish tinge to the girl's face and the clear dizziness in her eyes.

Kiyoshi took off his ice bag and reached inside. "I am a bit thirsty…"

"..Heehee…mmm…yummy sembai…."

Kakashi's stomach growled for seemingly the hundredth time.

Call it the mad delusion of overwhelming hunger, fatigue, and numbness of the brain from the coldness; but she was actually onto something right there...

_ooo_

He was actually starting to become worried as more time passed by. The sun was already out: 10:00 am. Just where were those kids? The Jounin leaped among the topmost canopies of the trees in the forest, finally catching sight of the group. They were all sprawled out and appeared to be napping; yet they were breathing heavily, a dash of redness on their faces.

Held ice chips were melting in their hands, in accordance to their bags, which were suspiciously open and devoid of any ice. He silently jumped down and lightly pressed a hand against each of their heads.

…Maybe it should had been 5 or 6 in the morning… He frowned uneasily at the thought of the monstrous wrath he would have to face from the medic nins, oi…and the paperwork…even more paperwork…

Yeesh, they were even heavier then they looked. The man made a makeshift sling out of an empty ice bag and cradled the other two in the crook of each arm then took off. Imagine his surprise when all three 'poofed', leaving behind small logs, and reappearing on top of the log posts below.

When the Jounin landed, Kakashi slid off and held out two bells. "We pass."

Amaya tilted forward and harrumphed gleefully while pointing a triumphant finger. "Yeah! Take that Mr. Fried Egg!" Kiyoshi merely looked the other way and smiled in agreement.

"Okay, okay, you guys win." The man waved his hands in front him defensively in a friendly manner.

"If I can only ask how you managed to get the bells though?"

Here Amaya let out a mischievous giggle and grinned slyly. "I'm the number one ninja in sneakiness! …Mmm...and here's your wallet…I thought I smelled mints in it…oh well…and I guess you'll need your shiny house keys too…" The objects were tossed back to the hoodwinked man who could only guess how the girl had got to them.

"Kiyoshi had medic knowledge, and I had the needed power to execute the jutsu of temporary illness, not an illusion; we melted the ice save a few with a katon." Kakashi finished.

"Hmm…I see, quite clever indeed. I commend you all...for an admirable try!" He grinned widely and twirled two chiming bells around a finger, pitching them up once then catching them.

"!"

Their eyes popped out, white and round as plates; their jaws dropping and digging into the soil. Kakashi unsteadily shook while gawking at the familiar sight of two acorns in his hand.

'_NOT. AGAIN. …'_

He crumbled the pair of acorns into fine dust tightly in a shaking fist, head veins popping out angrily.

"Ah, ah, hey." He nervously sweat dropped and waved his hands in front of him again. Don't worry so much, you guys already pass." It took a while for the three to comprehend the man's words what with large, angry marks popping out at a dangerous rate amongst Kakashi's drawn in head, looking one, tiny poke away from about to strangle something; Amaya kneeling on the ground staring up at the sky with rivers streaming from her eyes as contorted hands asking '_why?_' shook at her sides; and Kiyoshi, who had somehow teleported far away from the others, crouching down and dragging a finger in the dirt back and forth in a sulking way as gloomy lines descended upon his head.

"What?-Really?" All three suddenly zipped to stand before their sensei with fervent attention and interest.

"Yes, yes, you guys are the first to truly read 'underneath the underneath'. Teamwork. Working together. While individual advancement is important, teamwork is more significant." They gazed with hesitant and curious consideration of the man's words. Seeing this, the Jounin perceptively closed his eyes and smiled. A cool breeze started blowing and slowly grew stronger, whirling and dancing with their locks of hair. Out of automatic impulse as shinobis, they instinctively caught the falling objects; each opened their hand to reveal an acorn.

"Like acorns, you have yet to be planted and grow into great trees of Konoha. Sunlight, water, earth, and air. Work together as a team, protect each other, and help each other grow." The young intellects fingered their own acorn, reflecting quietly.

_**—'GRRRRUUUUMBLLE'**_—

"…Ahahaha…yeah…you guys would be really hungry by now…well, I did promise a treat at Ichiraku's—"

"—YAAAATAAA! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! YEEEEEESSS! GLORIOUS FOOOOD! SQUEEEEEE!" The girl started prancing around madly and once again had rivers flowing down her face, this time in joy.

"Hahaha, yosh! Then lets go!" The man started off happily and took a few steps before stopping at the sound of crashes. Looking back it seemed that his little genin team had took off only too eagerly before collapsing, the day's exhaustion finally settling in.

"…Ah c'mon" He goaded. "…Oh well..." He sighed in feign. "…looks like I'll just have to eat all of your shares then…" Placing his hands behind his head, the Jounin turned to walk away and was immediately halted by three very serious stares.

" 'eeeeeeeell no."

"What she said."

"…Er…please?..hehe.."

_ooo_

Holes. He swore those three had black holes in the pits of their stomachs that simply devoured everything that went in.

--

_"...Oh...sorry guys...I really would...but sadly I don't have any money left."_

_"Baloney. You have exactly 15 dollars and 76 cents left. I've been counting." Amaya didn't look up once while saying so. _

_"..No..really, see...aaaall empty."_

_"You hid the bills inside your vest pocket on the left side in the far lower corner behind the second inner layer of loose cloth." Kiyoshi quietly slurped his seventh bowl down._

_"..."_

_"Even so. You always have your credit cards." Kakashi ordered another bowl._

_--_

A thief, a spy, a punk.

Damn kids.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

-(closely rereads acorn bit) Hahahahahahahahaaaa…. (wipes tear) me trying to be all mystically wise and sage like (grows long beard and strokes it sagely)…hmm…yes…hoh-hoh…

-Err yeah…you would kind of notice how I'm skipping over the sensei's name, wow, huh, if you don't who he is by now…(heh, I don't blame ya, I can be pre-tty dense at times, go slow people!)…well, I just don't want to label him with a fanon name. :-P

-For those who are going 'huh?' over "Dooly fashion": GASP, you do not know of Dooly? Hehe. n-n Dooly is a cartoon dinosaur whose trademark is a stuck-out tongue. Image google him or something...

-Sembai: rice cakes

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_


	6. III: To Debauch

Disclaimer: whoops…keep forgetting this… 'I do not own Naruto.'

n-n Reviewers are the true gods. A mucho gracias to my reviewers and those who are just too lazy but still looks up my 'lil tale from time to time. :-) _Cearo Dameer, Sienna Maiu, Hiei's Shadow Tenshi, ohmgeeits cindee, Heart's Door, Einhart, Battlestations, realeza, Ami lee-chan_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Night Rain

III: To Debauch

_…The more you know…_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

… "…_Rock and Cloud have secretly allied, though for how long this one will last, I do not know. In my travels, I also detected movement in Rain as well."_

"_..Mm...I suspected so…"_

"…_It'll soon begin…don't you think?"_

"_It has already begun."_

"……_How many…?"_

"…_We have precious few spies left."_

"…_Then surely, you're not continuing with the exams? It would be suicide."_

"_Yet, suspicious not to. Whatever our enemies hope to achieve through them, we are capable of the same. However, it is not completely my decision alone. The council members and Jounin leaders should be arriving soon."_

"_Then I'll take my leave. I'll try my best to stay close by and check in more frequently from now on."_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

Genius was one thing, but wizened experience was another.

"Checkmate."

Kakashi furrowed his brows in thought, trying to figure out exactly how he lost for the fourth, consecutive time. While pondering, the rustling noises finally seemed to creep up onto his nerves as an angry head vein popped out.

"…Grrr…if I wasn't so _distracted _by her _noise_ I might have actually _played_ better!"

The girl did not respond but continued mumbling to herself and searching the bushes. She suddenly popped up by the two on the bridge and appeared in deep thought.

"….Hmm…do you think he can make himself all ghost-like and invisiblyfied?" She waved her arms around in the air to test her theory.

"….That was a good game anyway Kakashi, I really thought you had me there those last turns." Kiyoshi smiled in a good sport, if not with a slight sweat drop, despite the other's dangerous eye twitching while in the background Amaya whirled around, waving her arms in spaces containing open air. The shoji-loving boy fleetingly wondered if his teammate's eye muscles were strong enough to crack open a walnut with all the 'exercise' it went through. Kiyoshi stared for a moment. Yeah…probably…

"..Um…hehe..do you want to play a game too Amaya?"

From across him, a loud snort answered for her. "She's incompetent of sitting still for even a second. ADHD disorder…"

"Bah! I could whoop your sorry hiney anytime!" The girl had appeared by them and slapped her hand down on the travel size board, causing the few pieces left on it to jump up and rattle.

There was yet another intense battle of the glares, the air between their eyes crackled with unseen electricity. For once, a wicked thought couldn't help but sprout in the bystander's mind. The two were already so close…a slight bump to the girl's back and…an interesting turn of events. The contemplative boy weighed such options while offhandedly patting down his hair that was rising due to the static voltage from over yonder. He needed to get to get that hair gel soon before he retained a permanent fro.

"..Hey, wait." Amaya pulled back and frowned. "Where's sensei anyway? It isn't like him to be late." The others also realized the time passed and mulled as well.

Sharp instincts promptly shot into full alert.

Ropes-nets-kunais blazed out in deadly precision and speed.

"Ya-hoo! We finally caught you first sensei!" Amaya grinned joyfully and leaned in closer. "We finally—…you're not sensei…"

Only the man's dark eyes squinted out of the tight bounding of nets and ropes, he sat immobile on the bridge fastened to one of its posts. Kakashi poised his daggers in calculated spots on the intruder's neck.

An angry, muffled response came from the trapped figure. Off to the side, Kiyoshi slackened one of the ropes he held. The net piece covering the man's mouth slid off.

"You damn, little brats! Let go already!"

Amaya tightened his binding to the post as the daggers closed in warningly.

She pouted her lower lip up while narrowing her eyes to fine lines.

"Our sensei never gets caught like this—you're too stupid to be our sensei—our sensei isn't funny-looking either—who are you?"

A well-known twitchiness started in the stranger's right eye.

In an unexpected whirlwind of forceful power, the three were knocked into the air by violent winds, their ropes and nets flapped in the ripping air currents and slapped around the two boys like cocoons and dropped as so when the winds stopped. Amaya was snatched into place, tightly encircled and held up by a long tongue.

"Geez, you little brats are just as troublesome as he said you would be." After muttering this half to himself and the wide-eyed children, the tall man atop the horse-sized toad shouted out louder while gesturing majestically, his long, wild flank of hair whip lashing back as if having a life of its own.

"Who am I? Behold! And never forget the name of—"

"—NAA-AAH! Stupid froggy man! Lemme go!"

The tongue drew in to bring her closer to the man, who leaned forward with a rigid jaw and a shaking fist.

"You! You'll be the first to be punished for disrespecting your elder!"

"As if! Nnnnnn!" She fiercely scowled and rudely stuck out her tongue. The girl then poofed out of the toad's tongue and reappeared by the man's leg.

"Take that!" She gave a decent kick to his shinbone at which he leaped up and grasped, letting out a howl in pain. By then the other two had already escaped their bindings and charged forwards. Kakashi leaped and hurled a bombardment of shurikens where the target had to twist and contort his body this way and that to narrowly miss them, one shaved off a good part of his top hair and would have done more if the other boy had not canceled out and dismissed the frog summoning. The besieged man crashed onto the ground, bottom first and cursed himself for not listening.

_ooo_

"…_No, really, I wouldn't take them so lightly…"_

"_Bwahaha! What can a bunch of tiny toddlers do?!"_

"…_Sigh…don't say I didn't warn you…"_

_ooo_

"…Could have warned me _a little_ better…" The white-haired man grumbled grouchily while sitting up. The standing genin met his view, staring humorlessly with crossed arms. Amaya suddenly leaned forth with slitted eyes once more, the scene rewinding to the beginning.

"…………Are you a witch?"

"………….."

"Cuuuuz…witches have warts on their noses. But you're too biiig and faaat to be a witch." She gestured with her arms and hands to demonstrate just how 'biiig' and 'faaat'. "And you don't really look like a witch. Witches don't have a funny face like your's. They have a green, ugly face, not a weird, funny face. Did you go under plastic surgery? Or did you use your magic hex spells? Do you have a really big broom to fly on since you're a really big and fat witch?—"

Massive head veins pumped out as he stood and roughly grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt so she dangled in the air as a puppy would, held up by the gruff of its neck. His nose touched hers as he furiously glowered.

"Kid!!! You don't when to shut up—YEOW!"

"Ewwwwwwww…I got nasty wart juice over myyy fiiiingerrsss….ewwwwwwww, now I'm going to have yucky warts on my fingers like yours! Ewwwwwwww!"

Making a face, she gagged nauseatingly and looked away while wildly flailing her hands on the man's face in an effort to wipe them off and rid of the wart juice.

He finally managed to hold the aggravating girl at arm's length, shaking with rage and resentment.

"You rude, talkative little brat!" With this, he moved his arm to the side and let go, letting the yelping girl to fall and 'sploosh!' into the river below.

"For a supposedly great and legendary sannin, you're quite easily caught off guard."

The man narrowed his eyes and looked down towards the masked boy who was still crossing his arms and staring up coolly. His eyebrow started to twitch at the thought of having to deal with another little monster.

"So you're the _"punk" _of this group eh? …I would have expected a son of Sakumo to be well-mannered…"

Kakashi indignantly drew his brows together and made an offended sound.

"….Umm…we apologize Jiraiya-sama, we didn't recognize you before…please forgive our actions." The small boy had stepped forward and bowed his head quietly, side glancing at Kakashi to follow so-who stubbornly refused.

At this the tall man gave a hum of approval. "At least one of you knows proper manners—"

"—Why are you here?"

The hermit crouched down to the young Hatake, beginning to get ticked off again.

"…Oi..you wanna take a cold bath too?"

The boy didn't answer but continued to boldly glare directly into the sannin's eyes.

Before any threats could be carried out, a piercing shriek interrupted the scene.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!!! WEIRD FUNNY PICTURES!!! WEIRD FUNNY PICTURES!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!" A dripping wet Amaya had appeared in her usual suddenness and was screaming while blindly running around in uneven circles with a note pad flapping in her hand. A familiar note pad.

_ooo_

"_NEVER. EVER. LET. HER. OUT. OF. YOUR. SIGHT. EVER."_

_ooo_

Jiraiya frantically searched and patted all of his pockets, only to affirm that his pockets had been picked clean.

"GAH! NOOOOOO!" Pulling at his hair roots, the man sprinted forward to be taken aback and smacked in the face by his own notepad that had uncontrollably flown out of the hysterical girl's hand.

Such an action caused the man to stagger backwards and crash back down on his backside before the boys' feet, exposing the open note pad all too well.

Who knew the man could draw?

Mental images perpetually diseased in their minds, the twitchiness began.

For while genius was one thing, social maturity was another.

_ooo_

It was a simple task in gathering the three in one spot on the bridge, they were hardly in the state to think sensibly.

The man sat cross-legged before them on the bridge, sighing solemnly while smoking thoughtfully on his pipe.

"Hmm…all right…looks like I have no choice." He began in a very serious tone, "Kids. We're going to have a talk. We're going to have _The Talk_."

"These are just prototypes, but they'll serve their purpose for now." Three books plopped down into the hands of the still trembling children.

In an ironic, respectful schoolteacher fashion, the man instructed the children so. "Now everyone turn to page 1 in their books to the prologue and follow along as I read."

_oooooooooooooooo_Page 3_oooooooooooooooo_

**_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

_oooooooooooooooo_Approximately 4.46216 miles away_oooooooooooooooo_

"…Hmm? What is it?"

"…No…its just…I swear I heard…it sounded like a group of girls screaming…"

_oo_

Their previous twitchiness had escalated; it was far beyond the normal twitchiness. Perhaps fitful convulsions or epileptic seizures might have described it better.

Nevertheless, for the said 'teacher', a clean getaway was absolutely essential.

Hunching over, the hermit tried his best to tiptoe away, resembling a runaway burglar of sorts.

"…Damn..he'll be back soon…I need to get outta—"

His nose bumped into a solid figure.

"…Sensei…why are my students…rocking back and forth and mumbling to themselves?"

Not the slightest noise or change of wind.

_'I taught him too well…'_

Striving to regain some of his dignity, the man stood to his full height and regally cleared his throat, miffed.

"..So.." Jiraiya started in a casual manner, coolly flicking off invisible specks of dust off his shoulder, "..how long have you've been here..?"

"I just got back from the meeting…you did…_tell_ them I was going to be late right?"

The other sniffed and looked elsewhere, indignantly muttering something about being reduced to a mere messenger boy.

"..Pff…first day back…treated like this…damn little brats…almost as bad as my old team…—huh? Oh, oh, uh..of course! Why…...they got so sad when they heard the news! Really you should have seen their faces...hehe.."

The expression on the young man's face clearly showed anything but belief. It was more of an accusing glare directed at the figure who was nervously starting to subtly edge away.

The boy didn't get angry that often. In fact it was downright rare. Annoyed yes, but hopping-mad-spitting-fumes-glare-of-annihilation, a definite no. It had once annoyed Jiraiya to death to how the blonde could maintain such a calm, friendly approach to everything. A 'sweet-darling little angel' as many of his…focuses of…research…put it.

----

"_Please forgive my sensei, he does not know how to properly compliment such beauty as yours."_

"_Ohhhh, what an adorable sweetheart!" _

"…_(twichtwitch)…Dammit boy! Stop bowing already!"_

"_AND YOU! YOU NO-GOOD PERVERT!"_

…...

"…_Eeh?…How long was I out for this time…?"_

"_20 minutes."_

"…_(yawn, scratch)…Hmm? Where'd that runt go?"_

"_..Umm..over there.. (points to large crowd of woman cooing over said adorable blue-eyed blonde)"_

"…_Sigh…some guys have all the luck…(sulk)…"_

_----_

The one time. The one, single time he witnessed actual rage from the happy go lucky squirt, was the day he full heartedly, without a doubt, started to believe in the boy's potential in becoming Hokage.

----

"_..Heeeeeheeeeeheeeee…(nosebleed-wipe)…haven't seen you here before…(scribble, scribble).."_

"…………_Sensei."_

"_(Heart attack, choke, sputter)..whaa..what're you doing here..there's no training today…"_

"…_I'm here at the bathouses. ………Waiting for my mother…"_

_(Dread, sweatdrop)_

_(Cracking of knuckles)_

_----_

"…Somehow…I highly doubt that.."

"—Sensei…" The quivering girl tugged on the man's pants, beckoning with large, despairing eyes.

He quickly looked back up and twitched an eyebrow when seeing the hermit had taken the opportunity to succeed in his getaway. Yet, he turned back to his student at hand, who had disappeared behind a held up, graphic page that suspiciously looked to have had been ripped from a certain notepad.

An unsteady and hesitant voice came muffled behind the page. "…neh…w..what's the lady doing…to the man's thingie…?"

With eyes larger then planets, staring at the completely unexpected, vivid depiction, the reddened shinobi turned away and peculiarly started wiping his nose. While turning back, the held up drawing was quickly snatched away. The man coughed once into the same fist holding the crumpled paper and cleared his throat. An ample blush bloomed in his face as he determinedly stared in another direction, avoiding looking the child in the eye.

His reply was curt and if not, somewhat, high-pitched. "Nothing."

One-track minds were nice sometimes; temporary confusion took over her traumatized state while question marks wavered above her tilted head at her sensei's abnormal behavior and even more so when the curious redness of his face turned to a darker, angrier shade of a huffing baboon when he chanced to observe the woman closer after some epiphany seemed to have had struck him.

It was quite uncharacteristic of her placid sensei to be snarling like this…perhaps it was wise to back away for the moment…

"…—That. (Rip!) ….Erph… (Tear!) .. Always. (Shred!) …Was. (Slash!) …Pervert. …"

_ooo_

After some deep breaths of calming and making a mental note to pop a friendly visit to his ex-teacher , he was currently sitting down and wracking his mind for answers, fidgeting awkwardly.

"……i..i..it's n..not t..t..true?"

"Huuuh? So froggy-man was lying??"

"….I don't believe you."

They were better when twitching and mumbling. Twitching, mumbling and mentally dysfunctional children did not spout awkward questions.

"But then he put it in—"

"And the lady began—"

"…….What does the term…'or-gee' mean ……..?"

Now past the trauma, ignorant curiosity reigned instead. The incitement of new information that their sensei was greatly reluctant to explain convinced their calculating minds that they were onto forbidden and grand secrets and powers of the shinobi world.

The man who knew otherwise, however, took on a defeated, twitchy look when realizing their version of two and two put together.

"Please, won't you tell us?"

"Tell us! Tell us!"

"Now."

Tampering with memory was extremely dangerous. They were strictly, prohibited jutsu. Quite illegal actually.

But rules always had their exceptions.

_oo_

"…Umm…Kiyoshi…"

"…Amaya…?"

"………Ka-ka-shi."

After giving the man a similar, skeptical look, the last carefully enunciated his name as if speaking to a senile elder that was hard of hearing.

"Right. And who am I?"

"……Are you okay sensei?" :-\

"Mis-ta Fried Egg!!" n-n

"A person. With a nose." -.-

Yup, everyone was just peachy.

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

"……………………………I... Beat...You.……………………….?"

"……………….No, wait..grandpa, there must be some mistake..?!!! The king was…umm…how does the king move again……??"

"SPEAK TO ME KIYOSHI!!! FIGHT THE DEMONS POSSESING YOU!!!! BEGONE EVIL SPIRITS!!!"

"Owwwwoww, jii-chan, stooooop shaaaaking meeee, youuu'ree maaakking me diiizzy…"

_oo_

"Lalala, there's-a-fly-on-the-hair-on-the-wart-on-the-frog-on-the-bump-on-the-log-in-the-hole-in-the-bottom-of-the-….the….the….uhh….umm…heh??? I forgot??? Noooo! Bottom of the…in the bottom of the………bottom of…bottom………"……

_oo_

"…One, two………one…two…………_ONE. TWO. _…_Only two books??? _……Ahhhhhhhh—dammit!!"

_oo_

_'I wonder why sensei was acting so peculiar today……huh? What's this doing in my pack…?………Icha Icha…Paradise……???'_

_ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_

_Happy Halloween!_


End file.
